Of Captain's and Major's
by AegisEterna
Summary: Cpt. Alice Riley is a member of SG4, before she is given the opportunity to join the Atlantis expedition, where she meets Major John Sheppard. This story is an -almost- episode by episode account of Riley's time in Atlantis. The idea is based on if another female member had been apart of Sheppard's team. Sheppard/OC pairing, but it will be a long-burn story, so stick with it.
1. Rising

Stargate Command, Cheyenne Mountain

Lieutenant Alice Riley stood in the briefing room of the SGC, she had been scheduled to go out with SG4 before General Hammond had pulled her off the mission with no explanation. Silently she paced up and down the room occasionally glancing out of the window at the Stargate, she was starting to feel nervous, being pulled off missions generally didn't bode well. She dragged her hands through her golden-brown hair, pulling strands loose from her bun.

Alice Riley was - in her mind at least - a pretty ordinary girl. She was 24, petite but very tone. It usually gave her an advantage when sparring as people generally underestimated her strength. Nervously she paced back and forth in front of the large window that looked over the gateroom. It wasn't often people got pulled off missions, and it usually wasn't good news. Biting down on her nails, she caught site of her reflection in the window, her bright green eyes were narrowed into a frown and her lips were pulled into a tight line. Growing up she'd always been told she wasn't pretty by the other girls in her school, but she always seemed to be noticable. Something she'd learnt to use to her advantage. She wasn't sure why she was thinking about this now, anything to take her mind off the situation she supposed.

A dozen different missions flashed through her mind, anything that might have caused her to be reprimanded. Her head snapped up and immediately her body stood at attention as she heard the door open, General Hammond walked in followed by General O'Neill, who gestured to take a seat "please Lieutenant sit down."

Nodding, Alice pulled out the closest chair and took a seat. She couldn't stop her knee from shaking up and down as she waited for either General to speak.

"Lieutenant Riley" General Hammond looked directly at Alice, "we've been reviewing your recent mission files, as well as your recent review from your team leader." Hammond paused for a second, Alice didn't realise she had been holding her breath until she felt her chest aching for air. Taking in a breath she tried to analyse the General's face for any clue as to what was about to come.

"Yes" General O'Neill jumped in after Hammond gave him a pointed look "um… we would like to talk to you about re-assingment." Alice's hands were clammy at this point. "As you know we recently discovered the gate address to the lost city of the Ancients, and we would like to offer you a position on the team."

Alice's jaw dropped, O'Neill looked between her and Hammond "Oh… and we are also promoting you to the rank of Captain. Y'know if you decide to take the job."

It all seemed to good to be true, Alice shook her head slightly trying to straighten out her thoughts. "I…um…Tha…Thank you Generals for the offer, but can i ask why this is an offer and you haven't just re-assigned me?"

O'Neill coughed uncomfortably, "good question" turning to Hammond he not so quietly whispered "see i told you she was good"

Hammond gave O'Neill a disapproving look, "Lieutenant, because this is highly likely a one-way mission we are offering all personnel recommended for the mission the opportunity to decline."

Alice's forehead creased as she considered the weight of his words. Hammond continued "We know this isn't a decision to take lightly, so take some time to cons-"

"I would be honoured to be a part of the Atlantis mission" She interrupted, already solid in her resolve. This could be the fresh start she'd been wishing for. A way to be free of the ghosts that haunted her. Not to mention being one of the first to explore another galaxy, she just couldn't refuse.

Hammond looked slightly taken back, but O'Neill was smirking as though this was exactly what he'd expected all along. "Welcome aboard Captain Riley." He smiled as he enunciated her new title and Alice couldn't help feel a sense of pride at it. "You'll be under the command of Colonel Sumner and the expedition is departing in one week. Please make any necessary arrangements and report back to the SGC in 4 days for pre-mission briefing. As of this moment you're no longer a member of SG-4." O'Neill stood up and offered his hand across the table to Alice. "Welcome aboard." Hammond still looked shell shocked at what was happening.

Alice stood up quickly and accepted his hand. Then stepped back and saluted, before exiting the room. As soon as she made it out the door she lent back against the wall and grinned. Despite the fact she knew she was just running away from her problems, it felt good.

One week later

Alice looked around the hallway leading to the gateroom, people were moving about everywhere, checking equipment and talking to each other. She had to duck, dash and dodge with every step she took to avoid crashing into something or someone.

Everyone seemed to be speaking a variety of different languages, some of which she had never heard before. Her entire nervous system felt like it was on overdrive, she hadn't felt this invigorated since she'd first found out about the gate.

When she finally made it into the gateroom, her attention focused on a man in a yellow uniform - each division had been given their own color, yellow was for medical personnel - he was arguing with one of the military personnel dressed in black, same as her. She opened her mouth and put her right foot forward, but before she could intervene the two broke apart and things calmed down.

"Colonel" a man's voice sounded just to Alice's left. Turning, she saw a new soldier walk in and address Sumner. He was a typical build for a pilot; average height, but well built and carried himself with a certain air of cockiness. Sumner gave him a disapproving look before turning his attention away.

Alice had been in all the military personnel briefings for the last few days, but she didn't recognise the new arrival. She noticed his rank next, Major. This wasn't unexpected, although Alice had only recently been made Captain on this expedition most of the military personnel were made up of enlisted, there were very few officers. Before the Major walked in Alice had been the 4th highest ranking military officer.

The man looked around the gateroom with a certain awe that Alice had only seen in new recruits. He caught Alice's eye and slowly made his way over to her. She dipped her head politely at him. "Hello Major, you look like this is your first time seeing the Stargate." But before he could respond, their expedition leader, Dr. Weir, stepped through the doorway and called everyone to attention. Alice felt her skin start to tingle in anticipation.

Standing up on the ramp she began addressing the group, "Alright, here we go. We are about to try to make a connection. We have been unable to predict exactly how much power this is gonna take and we may only get the one chance at this, so if we are able to achieve a stable wormhole, we're not gonna risk shutting the Gate down. We'll send in the M.A.L.P robot probe, check for viability and go. Everything in one shot. Now, every one of you volunteered for this mission and you represent over a dozen countries. You are the world's best and brightest; and in light of the adventure we are about to embark on, you are also the bravest. I hope we all return one day having discovered a whole new realm for humanity to explore, but as all of you know, we may never be able to return home. I'd like to offer you all one last chance to withdraw your participation." Alice looked around the room and saw the Major doing the same, no one moved. Weir smiled and directed her gaze up to the control room "Begin the dialling sequence."

Alarms started ringing and Weir headed back to the control room. The Major turned to Alice "Major John Sheppard, and this is actually my first time seeing the gate"

Alice's face twitched in slight shock, "really?" She wasn't sure why but she'd assumed most if not all the military personnel had either received or been part of SG teams prior to this expedition. Before she could ask any more questions, approaching footsteps alerted Alice to the arrival of Colonel Sumner. He acknowledged her with a curt nod of his head then turned his body to face Sheppard.

"Let me make myself clear, Major …" His tone was dark and low.

Feeling uncomfortable Alice took a few steps back, in the process accidentally knocking into someone. Slightly flustered Alice spun around and looked at the person "Sorry Lieutenant, i wasn't looking where i was going."

The young man looked up and had a goofy smile on his face "no worries Cap, no damage done."

Alice smiled "Nice to see you Ford", Lt Ford had been a part of the SGC for about the same time she had. They'd run one or two joint ops before but she'd gotten to know him better over the past week's briefings. "you ready?"

Ford shook his head "are you?" He cocked an eyebrow.

Alice knew what he meant, they'd all agreed to this but the prospect that in the next few minutes they could be travelling to another galaxy with the prospect of never coming home was slightly daunting.

The whoosh of the Stargate made Alice turn away from Ford and back to the gate. No matter how many times she'd been through the gate it still never managed to leave her awe inspired. The MALP moved through the gate, Alice gave Ford a grin as she bounced on the spot in excitement. They were really doing this. She was really doing this.

She watched as the Colonel touched his ear and nod "Let's go, people. We don't know how much time we've got." Sumner and a few marines headed up the ramp. "Security teams one and two, you're up first. All other personnel will follow on our signal. Once on the other side, keep moving, clear the debarkation area. On my lead."

Alice checked her equipment quickly, her and Ford were both part of Security team 2. Major Sheppard moved towards her slightly as Sumner and Sec1 stormed up the ramp.

"Hold on, Colonel." Weir walked up the ramp behind Sumner, grabbing her backpack on the way. "We go through together."

Sumner didn't seem impressed, but he didn't stop her. Together they walked to the top of the ramp with Sec1 and then stepped into the wormhole.

Alice, Sheppard and Ford all stepped up and began to walk up the gate. Sheppard looked at the wormhole with a concerned face "what's it feel like?"

Ford's face took on a serious expression. "Hurts like hell, sir." A second later he grinned and jumped back into the gate.

"Don't worry sir, just remember to exhale before you step through" Alice gave him a slightly sympathetic look, before she followed after Ford.

Atlantis, Pegasus Galaxy

The city was bigger than Alice ever could have imagined. She'd been to the Ancient Outpost in Antarctica and she hadn't expected anything bigger than that. But from what they'd seen so far it looked bigger than even the SGC.

She'd taken Sec2 and started scouting the area below the gateroom. So far there was no sign of any hostiles, and the city seemed to be reacting to their presence. But that wasn't was stopped Alice dead in her tracks. They'd discovered a large window at the end of a hallway looking out over the submerged city. Alice felt her throat tighten. "Colonel Sumner, this is Captain Riley, i need you to come down and see this, I'm three levels below the control room."

The radio crackled in her ear "on my way Captain." Alice and the marines behind her shifted their weight uneasily as they waited for Sumner to join them. She knew this wasn't what they'd been expecting and it wasn't good. Sumner arrived and his eyes went straight to the window.

His eyebrows knotted together and he had the same look on his face as Alice and the marines, he reached down and pushed the button on his radio "Doctor Weir. Major Sheppard. Can you come down and meet me, please? We're three levels down from you."

It didn't take long till Dr. Weir and Major Sheppard appeared. Weir moved past her and the marines straight to Sumner's side. Sheppard stopped beside Alice and gave her a small smile.

"Oh my God." Alice looked away from him as Weir approached the window, Sheppard stepped up to look for himself. "We're under water."

"I'd say we're under several hundred feet of ocean. If we can't dial out, this could be a problem. Riley, Fawkes take your teams and report to Bates in the control room."

Alice nodded and began walking back towards the gateroom, stepping out of the way as a man she recognised as Dr. Mckay ran past her.

Back in the control room

Alice was checking in with the various teams around the city, Sumner had just given the order to fall back to the gateroom. Though Alice wasn't quite sure why. Just as she finished radioing the final team, Sumner's voice crackled to life in her ear "Captain Riley, Lieutenant Ford, gather security teams one and two. Everyone gear up."

"Yes sir, we'll be ready to move out in 5." Alice nodded to Ford and gathered her teams down in the gateroom as Sumner and Sheppard ran down the stairs to meet them. From what she could tell it wasn't Sumner's idea for Sheppard to join them, but Alice was intrigued. There had to be some reason he'd been selected for this expedition, and a mission was the perfect way to find out.

Ford handed her a pair of night vision goggles, which she slipped onto her head. Looking around both teams were now fully geared up. "Ready sir."

Sumner raised his gun and took the lead, Sheppard cocked his eyebrows before raising his own gun. Every action he made seemed to be an affront to authority and it amused her a lot. Letting out a breathy laugh she pulled down her goggles and stepped through the gate.

Alien planet

As they seen in the MALP report the planet was pitch black with no built up structures surrounding the gate. The ground was soft beneath her boots and the long grass brushed against her legs.

"Sheppard, you, Ford and Riley take positions on the left" Sumner kept his voice low as he called out orders. Alice lifted her hand to show she heard and fell into step behind the Major. Cautiously they moved forward towards the tree line. The Major stayed in a low crouch as he led them forward in line with Sumner's team on their right.

After running into a few local children, the team followed their father, who had introduced himself as Halling, back to his village to trade with their leader.

Sumner walked ahead beside Halling with Sec1 a few steps behind, whilst Alice, Sheppard and Ford followed behind with the two kids.

"So, Riley is it?" Sheppard asked her quietly as the group moved in the dark.

"Yes sir, Captain Alice Riley" Alice looked over to him, offering him a small smile.

"Well, it's very nice to meet you Riley. Any idea what we might be looking at here" he gestured with his P90 to Halling.

Alice shook her head "sorry Major, your guess is as good as mine. I'm used to things being a bit more ancient egypt-y."

Sheppard gave her a confused look, which made sense as he probably knew next to nothing about the Goa'uld. "So... how long you been doing this?"

"As in, exploring other worlds?" Alice was amused, Sheppard seemed to be a very different kind of officer to the ones she was used to. Although, he was starting to remind her slightly of General O'Neill. "About two years now, though I was originally assigned as the research attaché for SG-11 before being promoted and joining SG4."

Sheppard nodded, though she wasn't sure if he really understood what she was saying. But before he could say anything else, he was distracted by one of the kids, Jinto, asking about his night vision goggles. She couldn't help but snicker at his Star Wars reference, Sheppard narrowed his eyes at her, her giggle then turned into a cough.

Once they'd arrived at the village, Alice was put on guard position by the main entrance as Sheppard and Ford followed Sumner into the main tent.

She hated guard duty, and didn't understand why Ford was allowed in with the Colonel and the Major and she wasn't. It was probably something stupid and old fashion because she was a women.

Pacing around her position she listened for any signs of movement. It had been a couple of hours and the sun had started rising. Sumner had left the tent a few minutes ago and was now looking out over at an Ancient moment sticking out from the ground with Bates. They hadn't been able to see it in the dark. Alice kicked a stone nearby and watched as it flew down the small hill.

Ford had headed back to the gate and Sheppard had gone off with the leader Teyla, a beautiful red headed woman who looked like someone Alice wouldn't want to mess with. "Perimeter teams check in" Alice called into her radio, listening to the various teams report no updates.

The sun had began setting when Colonel Sumner announced he was heading back to the village. The ruins must have been shielded as they'd not been able to make contact with them for a few hours. Apparently they'd found nothing in the old ruins, but it could be a good alpha site.

Although her radio was on, she had tuned out the chatter that was happening, Ford was updating Sumner about Sheppard. That was until she heard Ford shouting into her ear "Colonel. Three bandits on your way."

Alice reacted instantly. "Perimeter teams go to defense positions, prepare for incoming hostiles." Moving quickly she headed towards the village entrance, just as she heard a feint buzzing noise.

That's when everything turned to chaos. Three planes tore through the sky above them, Alice and the other marines opened fire but their bullets seemed to just bounce off the armour.

The planes headed straight into the village and that's when people started screaming and disappearing, "Fawkes, Bates, report." But all she got in response was loud screaming. Though she heard Bates shouting that the Colonel had been taken. Cursing to herself she opened fire on the aircraft above.

But still her bullets seemed to have no impact. "Get down!" Ford yelled grabbing the back of Alice's vest and throwing both of them down into the dirt as one of the aircraft crashed, showering them in dirt. By the time Alice looked up and wiped the dirt from her eyes the aircraft were gone.

Clenching her fist she pounded it into the ground. "Dammit." Shuffling to her feet, she raised her gun at the crashed ship by her. "Ford..." The ship's cockpit was open and sparks of electricity were flying out. As far as she could tell the pilot had been either thrown from the wreck or ejected as there was no sign of it.

"Captain..." Ford's voice wavered as he called out. Alice raised her head and carefully stepped through the debris to where Ford was standing. His arms were tensed as he pointed his gun down at the ground.

Following his eyeline, she realised why he was tense laying on the ground was a grey-blue hand that had been severed just above the wrist amongst the debris. The strange part though was it was still moving. "What the hell..."

Atlantis

Alice, followed Sheppard and survivors from the village through the gate. Now that the Colonel was gone, the Major was the highest ranking military officer, which meant whatever he said goes as far as Alice was concerned.

As soon as she was back into the gateroom people came rushing in after her scared and anxious. "Riley, get these people out of the way and standby for further orders." Sheppard called out to her from somewhere across the crowd. Alice obliged and immediately began ushering people over to the side of the gateroom and down one of the corridors. She could hear shouting happening above in the control room, then everything started shaking.

"Everyone grab onto something!" Alice yelled down at the civilians. Gear and equipment started falling around them. Alice stumbled back through into the main room bracing herself against the staircase as the vibrations grew more violent. Just when she was sure the city was going to tear apart under her sunlight began streaming through what she now realised were windows above her. Gasping, she slowly stood up as the shaking subdued.

"Riley! Everyone down there alright?" Sheppard's voice rang out from the control area above her.

Alice let go of the stairs and gave the Athosian's around her a quick once over. Though they looked shaken, no one seemed injured. "Yes sir, we're all good" She stepped around the corner to see him moving towards the stairs just as a door opened up next to him leading outside. Weir and Sheppard headed out there, her expression was serious. It seemed like Sheppard was about to get an earful, and she was glad that she wasn't in his position.

She shook her head to clear her thoughts and decided on a plan of action. Grabbing her gear from the floor, she radioed for the security teams to check for any structural damages and to get any injured personnel to the medical teams.

Just as she was satisfied her teams were getting to work and she started to look around the gateroom to see if anyone here needed assistance, Sheppard walked down the steps towards her. Alive stood at attention. "Major, I've tasked security teams with damage control and getting any injured to the medical teams."

Sheppard seemed distracted, but gave her a curt nod "Good work Riley," he started to walk past her, but then stopped and turned back. "Can i ask you something Captain?"

"Sure thing, what's on your mind?" Alice tilted her head, looking into Sheppard's eyes, noticing for the first time the green tint to his hazel eyes.

"How well did you know Colonel Sumner?"

Alice shook her head slightly, and turned her gaze to the floor. "Sorry sir, this is the first time i've worked with him." Sheppard huffed and as Alice looked back up to his face, just nodded. "Sir, I know you're planning a rescue mission. I want to come along." She could see in his eyes this was what he was planning, with or without Weir's permission.

"Sorry Riles, you're now one of the senior military officers on the base, I need you here to manage the set up."

Alice raised her eyebrows at the new nickname he had given her. "But sir…" Sheppard's look was enough to stop her. She raised her chin. "understood Major."

Sheppard smiled and began heading over to Lt. Ford and telling him to gear up. Alice huffed silently, she didn't like being left out, especially when people's lives depended on it. But there wasn't time for self pity, people needed help and they'd be looking to the military personnel for guidance. She knew the priorities, it had been drilled into her since she first started at the SGC - security, shelter, food, water and oxygen. Not to mention taking care of anyone who was injured in the shaking or on the planet.

Straightening her jacket she headed for one of the men in a yellow jacket. "Dr. Beckett?" Although she knew most of the military personnel, she'd only read the civilian manifest briefly. The man shook his head but pointed towards another man with dark brown hair a short distance down the hall.

"Excuse me, are you Dr. Beckett?" The man was bandaging up one of the scientists.

"Aye, who's asking?" His eyes didn't leave his patient

"Captain Alice Riley, I've been put in charge of getting the base sorted." Alice glanced around her, everywhere people were rushing past with heavy equipment.

"Nice to meet you lass, what can i do for you?" Beckett finished his bandaging "This is all wrapped up, try not to let anything else fall on you now." The scientist mumbled a quick thanks and started moving away. Alice stepped aside to let him past, Beckett now directed his attention to her "well you're not exactly what i was expecting…" He seemed slightly taken back as he looked her up and down, realising what he said he started stuttering a bit "i mean, sorry, you're just so young"

"No worries doc, i get it a lot" Alice smiled and brushed a strand of her brown hair that had gotten loose from her bun off her face. "One of the security teams found what they think is an infirmary, it's been cleared and i thought you might want to check it out and see if it's suitable."

"Sounds good lass, I'll grab my team and check it out. We need to start examining that thing you brought back from the planet too." Beckett touched his radio and began moving towards another cluster of yellow jackets.

Alice shuddered at the memory of the severed hand, Ford and her had found next to the crashed dart. "Let me know if you need anything." The doctor just nodded and started gathering his team together.

Alice stepped aside and moved onto her next thing on her mental checklist.

—-

Everything had started coming together, Alice had her teams continuing their security sweeps, whilst other personnel were starting to set up communal and research stations. She'd started heading back to the control room to see if there was any update from Sheppard's team.

"Dr McKay" Alice acknowledged the scientist sitting at one of the primary consoles.

"Ah Captain Riley right?" McKay looked up and pointed towards the console next to him. "If i remember correctly you have a degree in astrophysics, right?"

Alice rubbed her hands together nervously. "Only a BSC though sir, but i am quite familiar with the ancient language" she had a feeling this was McKay's way of validating the ability of people.

"That'll do, can you sit there and see if you can find anything relating to the wraith" McKay returned to what he was working on.

"No problem sir" Alice unzipped her flak jacket and took a seat by the console "While i'm thinking about it sir, has there been any word from Major Sheppard's team?"

McKay didn't even acknowledge her question. "No Captain, no word yet." Dr Weir said as she walked across from her office to the control centre. "How's the set up going?"

Alice dipped her head respectfully. "So far so good ma'am, we've got teams securing the immediate area around the control room and most of the civilian scientists are finding areas to set up their basic labs." Alice looked down at the controls in front of her. "How long until their scheduled check in ma'am?"

"Elizabeth is fine, and they're now overdue." Elizabeth turned towards the gate, Alice could tell she was feeling nervous as well.

Alice had her head down in the console, as far as she could tell from what she'd translated, this station controlled the basic internal city functions. It didn't take her long to get internal comms up and running, making it a lot easier to keep in touch with all her teams exploring the city.

Just as she started diving deeper into the other basic functions of this control panel the gate began to dial. "Raise the shield" Elizabeth came jogging out of her office "do we have an identification code yet?"

McKay checked his computer screen "nothing yet."

Alice stepped up and tapped the internal comms system "security teams to the gateroom." Moving quickly she began heading to the stairs, taking her side arm out from her thigh strap.

"Wait, I'm reading Lieutenant Ford's I.D.C." McKay shouted

"Let 'em in" Dr Weir nodded at Alice as she gathered her teams.

"Make sure you leave enough room for the jump-" before she could finish the sentence energy blasts erupted from the Stargate. "Take cover!"

Alice watched everyone duck for cover as explosions hit the columns around them, then suddenly the jumper appeared through the gate and the shield immediately flew up back up. Through the window she could see Major Sheppard and his team smiling triumphantly. "Stand down." She ordered her teams, shaking her head at Sheppard's expression as the Jumper rose up into the hanger above them.

Later that night

Alice stood looking out over the city, since Sheppard's team returned they'd decided to hold a welcome to Atlantis party. It had been an intense 48 hours and she hadn't had a moment to get any sleep. Her security teams had managed to clear a good amount of space, enough to accommodate the expedition members and the Athosians. They'd started setting up campbeds, it wasn't going to be comfortable but at least they'd be able to get some rest and set up more permanent sleeping arrangements tomorrow.

Currently she was holding onto the railing trying not to yawn, as the various expedition members chatted behind her.

"Nice view" Sheppard appeared next to her, leaning against the railing.

"It's more amazing then i'd even dreamt it could be" Looking out over the city, the buildings lights created a soft glowing halo effect in the water. "I'm glad that you and most of our people made it back safely, though i still wish i had been included in the mission."

"You know as well as I do Riles that we couldn't have all senior military personnel off-site. You'll have to get used to taking on more responsibilities now that you're one of my top commanding officers." Alice looked up in shock, Sheppard took a swig of his drink and continued to look out at the city.

"But sir, you don't even know me." Alice was dumbstruck, one week ago she was just a Lieutenant, the lowest ranked member of SG4.

"I read your file, and your commander's recommendations. And Elizabeth agrees with me, she said you handled the settling in like a champ." Sheppard kept a calm facade on as he peered out over the city.

Alice couldn't stop the grin from spreading across her face. "Thank you Major." She stepped back and started to salute him.

Sheppard waved her off, "stop it, we're at a party. By the way, i was going to ask you..."

"So, i guess this is home now" Ford walked over and slapped his arm across Alice's shoulders, interrupting Sheppard's sentence.

"I guess so." Sheppard stiffened a little and turned back to look out at the city.

With his arm still draped over Alice's shoulder, he waved his hand towards the city "I'm thinking of a little place with an ocean view. Out of the way."

Alice pushed his arm off her, and just laughed, as she saw Weir approaching "Major. Captain. Lieutenant." She held up some mugs for them to take. "I thought the occasion merited opening this. Compliments of General O'Neill."

Sheppard was the first to take a mug "Cheers." Alice thanked Elizabeth and they all raised their mugs up and took a drink.

"You did good, John." Elizabeth turned towards Sheppard.

Sheppard sighed "I don't know about that." Alice felt like she was intruding on their conversation, she'd already heard the details of Sheppard's rescue mission. It sounded like a no win situation. But he'd still managed what the Athosian's had said was impossible, he'd brought back as many of those who were taken as possible. Except Colonel Sumner.

"Hey, there was no way you could have saved Colonel Sumner." Elizabeth assured him solemnly.

Alice turned to Ford, who was looking just as uncomfortable, subtly she nodded her head to the side and silently shuffled away from the two senior staff members. "Tell me honestly..." She grabbed Ford's arm. "Is it as bad as I heard?"

Ford tipped his head back draining the contents of the mug. "I've been with the SGC for three years and I've never seen anything like it."

Alice tightened her grip on her mug, her throat tightening. "That bad..." she took a sip of the bubbly liquid, letting the alcohol warm her body.

They stood together for another few minutes before she noticed Drs McKay and Beckett looking over at her, quietly she walked over to join them. "How come I never make friends like that?" Becket's voice was wistful as he stared past her. Looking over her shoulder she saw Sheppard and Teyla touching foreheads.

With his mouth full of food, McKay scoffed "You need to get out more."

"We're in another galaxy - how much more out can you get?!" Alice laughed at the Scottish doctor, who was just shaking his head at her.

McKay looked up suddenly staring suspiciously at his kebab "Is there lemon in this?!" then hurried off without another word.

"well… that was strange, is he always like this?" Alice motioned towards McKay's retreating form.

"Rodney is certainly a unique man m'dear" Beckett smiled softly at Alice "thank you again for your help with the infirmary Captain."

Alice waved a hand at him "ah it's no problem, just doing my job. And you can call me Alice doc."

"Well then it's Carson to you too. Oh looks like you might have some admirers." Beckett nodded behind Alice, turning she saw a small group of young boys from the planet staring at her, and then running off down the hallway. As she began to turn back, she also noticed Major Sheppard had turned to look at her, it looked like Dr Weir had just finished saying something. He raised his glass and smiled at her.

Alice returned the gestured and then turned back to Carson. "Well, it's been a long and tiring day. I hope you enjoy the rest of the party Carson" Alice placed her mug down on the nearest table and began to head towards her assigned quarters.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N** Hiya! i wasn't planning on updating for at least a week, but I managed to find time to get the next chapter down. Once i started writing it, i just couldn't stop.

This chapter covers of the next two episodes of Season 1, and we get to see a bit more interaction between Sheppard and Riley.

Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or plot lines associated with Stargate Atlantis, with the exception of Alice Riley.

Enjoy!

* * *

They'd been on Atlantis for a few weeks now, the day after the party Major Sheppard asked Alice if she would be happy to be a member of his team, alongside Dr McKay, Teyla and Lt Ford. Similar to when she was asked about joining the Atlantis mission her, her answer was immediate, slightly embarrassingly so. She'd close to shouted her answer at the Major, who'd given her an awkward look, nodded and then walked away.

The last couple of days had been uneventful, they'd finally made good progress in getting all the equipment unpacked, but there was still a long way till they'd be fully set up and functional. She'd been spending a lot of time with McKay and Carson, although Carson was easy to get along with, McKay could be particularly grating. Alice had just left her quarters with the intention of restarting her daily habit of a morning run. She'd dressed in a dark red sports bra and black joggers, and was just stepping outside her room.

"Oh hi Alice" McKay walked past her, Alice gave him a suspicious look, he normally wasn't up this early and certainly never this cheery.

"Morning Rodney, what's got you so excited this morning?" McKay hadn't stopped moving, curiosity getting the best of her she began to follow him.

"Carson just finalised his ATA gene therapy, and I'm on my way to get inoculated!" McKay's voice must've jumped a few octaves as he spoke.

"Oh right" Alice's interest ebbed then, she already had the gene although it was as strong as Sheppard's she'd managed to initialise several systems and even test start a jumper. "What've you got in your hand there" her voice was slightly muffled as she'd placed her hair tie in her mouth, so she could put her caramel colored hair up into a messy bun.

"Ah, an ancient shield device, well at least that's what i think it is." McKay showed the green and silver device to Alice.

"Well good luck, I'm going to go for a run and then I have to meet up with Major Sheppard for a security debrief." Smiling to McKay she began jogging towards the south pier.

"Riley, can you report to the conference room" Sheppard's voice sounded in her ear, she'd just made it back from her run.

She was out of breath, panting and sweating. Quickly she looked down at her watch, just making sure she'd mistaken the time and missed the briefing, but there was still over an hour till she was meant to be report. "I'll be there in a sec" she panted into the radio.

Taking a deep breath, she moved past her room and ran up the stairs to the control room, Sheppard was standing next to Rodney at the top of the stairs. "Major?" Sheppard raised his eyes to her briefly, then quickly repeated it as he looked at her outfit. "Sorry sir, i was just getting in a morning run before the debriefing." Her chest was still heaving as she breathed in heavily. She was highly aware that her stomach and cleavage was on display at the moment. "What did you need?"

Sheppard took a second before he looked back to McKay, "oh...um…right" he looked slightly confused, he looked back to Alice, his eyes raking over her body.

"Sheppard, shield? hello?" McKay nudged the Major, Alice had to hold in her snicker as Sheppard tried to regain his composure.

"Yeah, Riley check this out. McKay found a way to make himself invincible." Alice moved closer to them both and saw that green and silver device placed on McKay's chest.

"Good to see Carson's gene therapy worked! What does it block?" Alice watched as both Sheppard and McKay's faces lit up like kids.

"Seems like anything and everything" McKay explained "even bullets!"

"You shot him?" Alice turned to Sheppard who still had a goofy grin on his face. "So, what did you need me for?"

"I thought since you'd been spending so much time having to help McKay set up his lab, you might like to get a shot in." Sheppard took out his side arm and offered it to Alice. "Y'know get some of your pent up rage out."

Alice couldn't contain it then, McKay looked incredulous "hey, what's that supposed to mean?"

"I'm fine sir, though the practical applications of this shield tech are pretty impressive. Have you tested its impact

resistance?" As soon as the words left her mouth, she knew she'd regret it.

Sheppard and McKay looked at each other and both ran over to the balcony over the gateroom. "I didn't mean test it right now!" Quickly following behind them, she watched as Sheppard shoved McKay over the balcony.

Alice ran to look over the balcony.

Sheppard was almost jumping with enthusiasm and laughing with delight. "Oh my God." Alice winced as she heard Elizabeth's voice shout out, this had been a terrible time for her to walk in.

"Did you see that?!" Sheppard ran back towards the stairs.

"Yes! What the …?" Elizabeth walked to next to Alice and looked over the side just as McKay jumped up from the floor.

"I'm fine!" he was positively beaming as he raised his hands and began turning around, trying to get everyone's attention.

Alice chanced a glance at Elizabeth's and saw a mixture of disappointment and anger marring her features. Alice winced as she followed Sheppard down the stairs "Great idea Riles!" he clapped his hand on her shoulder, she prayed Elizabeth hadn't heard that.

She couldn't bring herself to look at the expedition leader, as McKay began explaining to Elizabeth "Look, Beckett's gene therapy worked. I was able to activate this. It's a, uh, personal shield: acts like a protective skin; and it must have inertial dampening properties too, because I didn't feel a thing. Watch this." He turned to Peter Grodin who had walked in beside Elizabeth "Hit me."

Before she could warn him, he threw a punch at McKay's face.

"Ow, God!" Grodin grabbed his hand and cursed, some of the Athosian children standing nearby began laughing.

"You didn't have to swing so hard," both he and Sheppard were grinning, "and notice he didn't even hesitate."

Elizabeth still looked disapprovingly at him "I'm still trying to understand how you thought it was a good idea to test this device by having someone throw you off a balcony."

Alice closed her eyes as McKay explain that wasn't the first thing they'd tried. Sheppard, still grinning, proudly stated that he'd shot him first.

Elizabeth stared at him incredulously. "In the leg!" his smile faded a little, but his tone was defensive. "The balcony was Riley's idea"

Alice's eyes widened in shock "hey! don't drag me into this, all i said was had you considered the applications" she'd raised her hands up.

McKay grinned and held his arms out to the sides, ignoring her and Sheppard "I'm invulnerable!"

Elizabeth crossed her arms "Aren't you the one who's always spouting off about how proper and careful scientific procedure must be adhered to?"

McKay's only response was to repeat himself in a sing-song voice "Invulnerable."

"Alright, take it off. Let's go have this meeting." A smile crept onto Elizabeth's face, as she turned to walk back up the stairs.

"You're just jealous." McKay sulked

"Oh yes, green with envy!" she turned back to say.

"This could be a problem." Alice whipped her head back around to see McKay trying to grasp the device, but the shield was preventing him from deactivating it. "I can't get at it."

Sheppard reached for the device but the force shield stopped him too, his grin was long gone now. "Just checkin'."

* * *

Alice had just completed her last checks and began to walk towards Major Sheppard's quarters, he'd mentioned he was entertaining some of the Athosian children before their bedtime and to check in with him before the end of my shift. As Alice approached his room, she watched as children started filing out.

She could also just make out Sheppard's voice "I hope I didn't scare 'em too much."

Halling was standing in the door way and had a look on his face that told Alice he didn't think the kids were scared at all. "I don't think so."

"Good." Alice pursed her lips together to stop her from smiling. "Ah Riles, there you are. Goodnight Halling"

Halling said his goodbye to Sheppard and Alice, before following the kids down the hall. "Having fun Major?" Alice still had to bite down on her bottom lip.

"Yeah, yeah. Wipe that smile of your face, come on in" Sheppard stepped aside, gesturing for her to move into his room.

"Thanks sir" Alice moved past him and stepped into the room, she noticed the poster of Johnny Cash above his bed, it seemed to be the only real decoration in the room. "I like what you've done to the place, very minimalistic." Alice smiled, she knew she was starting to bug him.

"One more word and I'll put you on KP" Sheppard pointed his finger at her, raising his eyebrow. It sounded like a very empty threat, which just made Alice's smile widen. After a few seconds of silence, Sheppard looked expectantly at Alice "Well, go on then, what's the update?"

"Sorry sir, you said one more word." Alice watched as Sheppard sighed into his hands and gestured to the chair next to the bed.

"Oh i can tell i'm going to have my hands full with you. How about we stick to me being the funny one?" Alice smiled as Sheppard slumped down on his bed, and she took the chair.

"McKay still hasn't been able to deactivate the device, but I'm sure when the time comes it'll come off. and the security teams have cleared some more areas toward the south pier." Alice continued with her update on the various security and lab updates, then stood up. "Well, i'd best be getting some rest. Goodnight Major."

Before she could begin making her way to the door "Before you go Riles. I meant to ask you the other day, what made you sign onto this one-way expedition?" Sheppard had moved on the bed and was now sitting up straight, staring into her eyes.

Alice took a second, the question had caught her off guard. "uh, I don't know, it just seemed like one of those once in a lifetime moments. And i just couldn't say no."

"Did you not leave a life behind?" Sheppard looked genuinely interested.

"um.. not exactly" Alice's voice was light, and she lowered herself back down onto her chair. "I mean, sure i had friends and family back on Earth, but i was already part of the SGC, so it's not there was much time for a relationship or anything. What about you? Did you leave anyone behind?"

Sheppard nodded considering her answer "not exactly, honestly i'm not sure i'd fully considered what this mission meant until we got here. But I didn't have much of a life to leave behind"

Alice looked at him disbelieving "I find that hard to believe sir, you seem to get along with everyone so naturally."

"Come on Riles, we're off-duty enough of the sirs. Hey, the rest of the team are going to educate Teyla on some good ol'Earth sports, wanna join?" Sheppard relaxed his face and stood up, grabbing a disc from next to his bed.

Alice nodded "What sport?" she asked as they headed out the door.

* * *

Teyla, Sheppard, McKay, Alice and Ford all took their seats side by side on a sofa in the conference room. McKay was the only one who didn't seem to be enjoying himself. Sheppard had a large bowl of popcorn on his lap, as did Ford. An American football match was on the TV. Sheppard offered the popcorn to McKay, who just grimaced in response, shrugging he lent across McKay and offered the bowl to Alice, who took a massive handful "hey, not all of it Captain! there's a limited supply!" Alice just stuck her tongue out at him and threw a piece at him.

"Funny." McKay said sarcastically as he picked a piece of popcorn off his lap.

"Oh, here it comes. Watch this." Sheppard had turned his attention to an Ancient screen which has been set up in the corner of the room.

"Four seconds, three seconds, two seconds, one, Flutie throws, this game is over. Hail Mary, it is caught!" came booming out of the speaker system.

"Oh! That is beautiful! Can you believe that?!" Sheppard threw his hands up and looked at Teyla. Alice and Ford were both laughing.

"Should I not?" Teyla just looked confused. Sheppard began to explain, as Teyla looked back to the screen, still not understanding.

"They seem very happy." her tone suggested she wasn't overly impressed.

Sheppard stuffed a couple pieces of popcorn in his mouth "Well, they just won one of the best games of all time against all odds."

Ford and McKay started some back and forth about Canada and Hockey, just as Elizabeth walked in "Hey, what are you guys doing?"

"I'm teaching Teyla how football is the cornerstone of Western civilisation." Sheppard replied putting more popcorn in his mouth.

"And you didn't invite me?" Elizabeth honestly didn't sound too disappointed, Alice twisted her head to look at her, before snatching the popcorn bowl out of Sheppard's lap.

"Hey!" Sheppard glared at Alice, as Ford and McKay laughed, he mouthed _this isn't over_ silently to Alice. "You like football?" turning his attention back to Elizabeth.

"No not really."

"Oh, come on. It's real, it's unpredictable, it's full of passion and ... beer …" Alice offered Sheppard's bowl of popcorn to Elizabeth, "... hotdogs."

"Cheerleaders." McKay said glumly, Alice almost choked on her popcorn. McKay just glared at her.

"I just can't understand: you're allowed one personal Item and you chose this." Elizabeth pointed at the screen.

"It's a metaphor. Don't you see?" Sheppard said defensively "This entire expedition is the biggest Hail Mary in human history."

"What is a Hail Mary?" Teyla piped into the conversation. Everyone turned to Sheppard to watch him try to explain.

"It's the play that you just saw." Teyla still looked confused and Sheppard groaned "It's named after a prayer. See, there was this woman, and her name was Mary and she ... uh … Did I ever tell you how much I like Ferris Wheels?" Everyone began to laugh, Alice was sure if the room had been brighter there would have been a slight blush on Sheppard's face.

Alice, Ford and Sheppard said goodnight to Teyla and headed for their own quarters. "Right, I'll see you both in the morning" Ford mock saluted and turned down the next hallway, leaving Sheppard and Alice alone.

Sheppard cleared his throat as they continued walked down the corridor "well Riles, it's been a blast" he folded his arms behind his back "but, you better believe that you'll pay for stealing my popcorn."

Alice threw her head back and laughed "Ooo. I'm absolutely terrified Major." She winked at Sheppard and waved her hand over her door sensor "see you in the morning."

Alice watched the door slide shut on a slightly stunned Sheppard. Slipping her radio off her ear, she started pulling her shirt off and getting ready for bed. Her pyjamas were just a simple black tank top and shorts. Alice climbed into bed and closed her eyes, glad to finally get some rest.

After what felt like two seconds later Alice heard her room door chime. Yawning she sat up from her bed and looked around to get her bearings. The door chimed again, jumping up she moved quickly towards the door, swiping her hand over the control panel.

Sheppard stood in the hallway, "Riley, suit up Jinto's missing" he was looking up the hallway, before turning to look at her taking in her appearance "Um...full gear. Teams of two. I'll get Ford"

Alice nodded "yes sir." She turned back into her room gathering her equipment.

Alice was walking through a corridor, the lights kept flickering on and off. "Stackhouse, keep your guard up." Alice looked over at her team member and tapped her radio "Major, we're getting massive power failures in this section. Still no sign of Jinto."

She listened as Elizabeth and Sheppard discussed one of the Athosians seeing shadows like the wraith make. Sheppard's voice sounded across all channels "Alright, all teams fall back to the Gateroom and wait for further instructions."

Alice nodded to Stackhouse "acknowledged, we're heading back."

After Sheppard and McKay discovered Jinto in an undiscovered lab on the other side of the city and that he'd inadvertently released an entity, Alice and Stackhouse had met up with Ford to check out the closest generators the entity had previously fed on to check the stability of the naquadah. They were just making their way back to the control room when Grodin's voice sounded through the internal comms, "Captain, This is Doctor Grodin. I'm tracking the entity heading your way. You might want to get out of the hall you're standing in."

Alice nodded at Ford and Stackhouse "Roger that. Okay lets get a move on guys."

As they approached the nearest door it suddenly closed locking them out, Alice and Stackhouse tried to force the door. shaking her head at Ford. He clicked on his radio, "uh, this is Ford. A bullhead just blocked our way. There's no panel on the wall or any way to open it that we can see."

Alice looked back down the hall "We're going to double-back and try the door back down the hall." The team ran and the next door still wouldn't open. "Rodney, this one won't open either. I'm going to try to manually override it. How much time do we have?!" Alice tried to keep the panic out of her voice, whilst she pried the cover off the door panel. "If this works, both of you get inside that room as soon as possible." Ford and Stackhouse nodded.

"It's coming around the corner now, you've only got a few seconds Alice!" McKay's voice was tense.

Alice removed the middle crystal and replaced it with the top one, then bridged two together. The entity was centimeters away "move! Move!" Alice pushed Stackhouse inside and moved to follow Ford.

Even moving as quick as possible, neither Ford or Alice managed to get completely out of the way before the entity was upon them. Alice felt like her entire body was on fire as she screamed. She saw Ford writhing in pain next to her before everything went black.

—

Everything was quiet, slowly Alice became aware of her surroundings. The quiet beeping of a machine entered her mind. She tried to stretch out her limbs, but her body cried out in pain. Slowly she opened her eyes.

"Ah good morning sunshine" Carson stood over her. "How are you feeling?"

Alice tried to push herself up into a sitting position, Carson moved his hands under her back to help. "Like a burnt piece of toast." Her voice came out raspy and harsh.

Sheppard's laugh sounded down the room from her. "Damn, it doesn't sound like it got her sense of humor. maybe we should let her at it again."

Alice looked over to see him and Elizabeth walking towards her, Ford trailed behind slightly. "Hey, you got hit too. Why aren't you toasted?"

Ford chuckled "Sorry Cap, afraid it only grazed me. And Stackhouse is fine too!" he'd read her mind, she'd just began to open her mouth to ask.

Sheppard turned to Beckett "is she going to be okay Doc?"

Carson looked between the two "Aye, she's a tough one. She'll be good as new in a few days."

"Sorry Major, looks like you'll have to solve this one without me." Alice tried to smile but ended up grimacing in pain.

"I don't know how we'll manage without you Riles." Sheppard mocked her.

Elizabeth shook her head "Just focus on getting better."

They began walking towards the door, "Don't worry, i'll make sure to steal you an extra jello!" Ford yelled before turning to chase after the others.

* * *

Carson kept coming by telling her to rest, but with everything happening in the base she found her self too tense to relax. Eventually he'd agreed to let her have her earpiece back, just so she could keep updated on the situation.

She'd listened as Rodney had risked his life to get the entity through the gate. Now she watched as he started to stir in the bed next to her. "And the hero awakens." Sheppard was lent against her bed, and Ford was trying to steal pudding from the mess tray.

McKay looked at the team gathered next to his bed "oh hi guys." his gaze then landed on Ford "Oh Ford could you grab me one of those."

Sheppard sighed "Good to know you're okay. Right time to get back to work." Sheppard pushed himself off Alice's bed, and grabbed her jello from her tray. "Thanks Riles, get better soon."

"Hey! Bring that back!" Sheppard just laughed as he left the room.

Alice laughed and relaxed back into her bed "So, where is this extra jello i was promised?"

Ford turned around from the mess tray "I haven't forgotten, don't you worry, but for now you'll just have to settle for hospital pudding." he laughed as Alice scrunched up her face.

"If you don't want it can i have it?" Rodney was looking eagerly at Ford as he chucked the pudding towards him. Alice shrugged and closed her eyes, she heard another pudding being launched at Rodney.

"So, how does it feel to be the hero?" Alice out her arm behind her head and turned to look at Rodney.

"Surprisingly unsatisfying, i mean where are all the admirers?" Rodney's mouth was now full of pudding, but gestured to the mostly empty room.

Ford scoffed and took up Sheppard's recently vacated spot at the end of Alice's bed. "y'know the most attractive quality of a hero is modesty. Sure, women love a confident man, but there's a difference between confidence and arrogance. Take Ford or the Major as a good example - though don't tell him i said that." Alice directed her gaze to Ford as she said it, he just shook his head.

Rodney just shrugged his shoulders "well. It's not like Ford or Sheppard have women lining up down the hall." Ford looked like he wanted to interject at that point "And I am a much better option than Major Ferris Wheels."

Both Alice and Ford cracked up "Oh god, stop...it really hurts to laugh." Alice was clutching her ribs as the laughter shook her sore muscles.

"Well, it's true!" Rodney tried to defend himself.

"Well, well what's gotten into you lot?" Carson walked over to them, a chart held in his hand.

"McKay believes he stands a better chance with the women on the base than Major Sheppard. I have to say i wholeheartedly disagree, though it's obvious who the real lady killer here is" Ford lent back and proudly pushed his chest out.

"Okay pretty boy, well these two need to get some rest. Rodney, enough pudding now please" Carson gave him an exasperated look, as Rodney began to open his third pudding cup. "How are you feeling lass?" Carson picked up Alice's chart from the end of her bed.

"Bit better, but my muscles all feel like i've just done a 10 hour run up a mountain." Alice winced as she tried to stretch out her legs, feeling a similar muscle burn radiate through her body.

"Well the entity caused all your muscles to go into massive spasm, you're lucky you have good muscular around your heart or it could have sent you into cardiac arrest." Carson said seriously. "We're going to keep you another day, then give you a couple days of mild activity and see how you do before returning you to active duty."

Alice wanted to argue, but Ford's face told her he wouldn't be helping her get out of this sooner then that. "Ahhh fine!" she said finally.

"Good, now rest up both of you." Carson and Ford said a swift goodbye and left Rodney and Alice to rest.

After a few hours of silence, Alice gave up trying to sleep and turned to see Rodney working on his data tablet. "Hey, i thought we weren't supposed to be working?"

Rodney looked up and over at Alice, "I would hardly call this working, I'm checking through the Ancient database for more information about the City's internal monitoring systems. Besides, I only passed out, i didn't get struck by lightening." he said to her without looking up.

Alice huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. "So..." she started "is there anyone on the base who catches your fancy?" She was grasping for straws, but she couldn't take just staring up at the ceiling anymore.

"huh?" This question took Rodney by surprise, "Oh ah, no i don't think so. No one that seems to be my type. Well not to say there aren't lots of attractive women on the base, yourself and Teyla are both..." Alice rolled her eyes as Rodney started rambling.

"Geez McKay, calm down. You don't have to be interested in anyone" Alice regretted asking the question now.

"Well what about you huh? Anyone take your interest?" Rodney was slightly flushed after his ramble.

"Don't know really" Alice said honestly, "I mean I've really only spent time with the other military guys. And we've not had many get to know you opportunities." Alice joked.

Rodney laughed awkwardly and looked back to his data pad. Alice pursed her lips together and started making popping noises, "why are you doing that?" Rodney said after a minute.

"because i'm bored out of my mind Rodney!" Alice groaned, and put her pillow over her face. "read to me! i don't care if it's the technical specs to the City's plumbing systems. Just anything."

Her voice was slightly muffled from the pillow, but she heard Rodney sigh and begin to read out the section he was working on.

* * *

The next couple of days passed slowly. Rodney had been released in the morning the day after the accident, whilst she was still being held captive. Ford and Teyla had both been coming by to keep her company - generally this meant talking about best fighting and defense techniques against the wraith and who the other thought they could take in a fight. Ford had almost been caught bragging that he'd be able to take Sheppard out in one blow, by the man himself. Alice almost passed out from laughing so hard. Teyla had been bringing her up to speed on the Athosian culture and stories, and asking questions about odd Earth references the team had been making.

Finally Carson gave her the all clear and she'd been able to pack up and leave the infirmary, on the condition she took it easy and stayed off active duty for at least another couple of days. Alice was just happy to be able to sleep in her own bed at last.

Alice rolled over in bed, searching her nightstand for the source of the annoying beeping. Finally her hand came down on her clock. Groaning she looked up to see the digital readout say 5:30am. She'd been undisciplined during her time in the infirmary, and her routine was now thrown out the window. Throwing the covers off she stood up in her dark room and stretched out. Her muscles were still tight and sore, but it didn't hurt anywhere near as much to move as it used to.

Running her hand through her hair she walked over to the bathroom to splash some water on her face and brush her teeth. As soon as she was dressed in her normal workout gear she grabbed her water bottle and headed to the gym. It was about 6am when she finally arrived, usually at this time you had either the soldiers warming up getting ready to go on duty, or those just rotating off and wanting to get a workout in before heading for bed. So far, she'd only seen a couple of scientists come in and make use of the facilities. She wondered if having all the military personnel here made them feel uncomfortable.

Today, the gym was mostly quiet. Alice saw a few marines on the treadmills and Teyla was over in the sparring section with another Athosian female. Alice started wandering over towards her. "Morning." Alice dropped her gear in the corner, Teyla nodded in greeting and turned her attention back to the fight.

Alice stood and watched as Teyla threw the young girl onto the ground. "Remember to keep your weight equally spread across your feet." Teyla drew her up from the floor and touched foreheads, before the girl looking exhausted headed for the exit. "Nice to see you out of the infirmary Alice. Would you care to spar or are you still taking it easy?" Teyla smiled, although Alice knew it wasn't a pointed comment, so she happily agreed.

"So long as we don't go all out. My muscles still feel like they're seized up." Alice kicked off her shoes and stepped onto the mats to face Teyla. They began to circle each other, both their arms up in defensive positions. Teyla struck first extending her arm out to try catch the side of Alice's face. Alice spun to the left and darted forward trying to catch Teyla off balance. But, Teyla stepped forward and her forearm crashed into Alice's.

"Very nice!" Teyla huffed as Alice smiled back. Both of them pushed against the others arm, suddenly Teyla's knee came up to hit Alice's stomach, quickly Alice used her free arm to block her and with as much strength as she had pushed Teyla back, causing her to fall onto the floor. Acting quickly, Alice grabbed Teyla's arm, spun her body around and gripped her into an arm lock.

Alice was breathing heavy now, Teyla slapped the mat and Alice loosened her grip. Standing up and extending her hand down to Teyla, pulling her up from the ground. "That was impressive." Sheppard stood leaning against the sparring room wall, a few other marines in the gym had come over to watch as well. "Try not to hurt each other though, I don't need both of you taken off active duty."

Alice and Teyla looked at each other in amusement, "perhaps Major, you would care to join Alice and I?" Teyla put her arms on her knees and took in a deep breath.

Sheppard's smile faltered a little "perhaps next time, right now i came by to grab you for a mission briefing." Both Teyla and Alice moved to grab their things off the floor. "Sorry Riles, Doc say's you're still not cleared for active duty yet."

Alice huffed dejectedly "Fine, but try not to have too much fun without me." Alice pointed at Sheppard.

He pretended to look behind him and then pointed at himself "me? never." Teyla said a quick goodbye and follow Sheppard out of the gym.

* * *

After the gym Alice had grabbed some food and was now making her way to Rodney and Radek's lab. She knew Rodney would be off on the mission, but he'd mentioned he'd found the equivalent of the Puddle jumper's technical manual, and that had peaked her interest. She'd only test flown one so far and only within the Jumper bay.

"Hi Radek, how you doing?" Radek had his head down in his laptop. As he heard Alice walk through the door, he pushed his glasses up his nose and smiled.

"Oh Captain Riley, what can i do for you?" Radak pressed a few keys on his laptop, probably saving his place.

"i'm still waiting to be returned to active duty, so i thought i'd have a go looking over the Jumper's technical manual Rodney said he found." Alice grabbed one of the stools and pulled it up to the other side of the desk from Radek. "and for the millionth time, call me Alice.

"Sure sure, i think it's on the datapad over here. let me know if you need anything else Cap.." Alice gave him a fierce look "I mean, Alice."

"See wasn't so hard!" Alice beamed and took the datapad out of his hand "thanks. So, you working on anything good?"

Radak had said something about the ZPM and power systems, but Alice didn't fully understand, and he seemed fully engrossed now. Nodding absentmindedly she turned her attention to the datapad and began looking through the schematics.

* * *

They only had 15 minutes left until the Stargate disengaged, Sheppard's team was caught partway in the wormhole. And the Major reportedly had some sort of alien creature attached to his neck. Alice had reacted to the call along with Radak, hoping the data she had just been looking at could somehow help. But, they were running out of time, unless they could figure out how to retract the drive pods from within the Puddle Jumper.

Alice paced around the conference room, panic was starting to cause her throat to tighten. They'd gotten no closer to a problem and the scientist Kavanagh was starting to test her patience. "I'm going to the Jumper bay and see if i can help Radek!" Alice raised her voice over the scientists bickering in front of her, throwing her hands up and started running to the closest staircase, brushing past Elizabeth on her way.

"Radek, tell me you're close!" Alice stomped up the Jumper's open bay door.

Radek was speaking in Czech, and it didn't sound good. "I haven't been able to figure it out yet."

"We're running out of time! What can I do to help?" Alice was pacing again, this time up and down the Jumper, her eyes never leaving Radek as he moved around the different crystals in the control panel.

Just then Alice's attention was on her radio as Ford had just tried putting salt on the creature. "Sir, are you all right? Sir? Major? Major? What's happening?" Ford's voice was high pitched and wild with panic.

Alice and Radek froze, waiting to hear what was happening. Carson's voice sounded in her ear "Did it loosen its hold on Major Sheppard?"

There was a short pause before Ford replied "Negative." Alice felt her stomach drop.

"If anything, it dug in more." Teyla sounded calmer than Ford, but only mildly so.

"Please, don't do that again." Sheppard wheezed into the radio, he sounded even weaker now. Everything went back into a flurry then, Radek began working quicker now, shouting in Czech to one of the other scientists. Alice felt utterly useless, she resorted to looking through her datapad again to see if she could find anything that would be of use.

"How is Major Sheppard?" Elizabeth's voice sounded. She'd been trying to tune out the conversation from the jumper in order to read and absorb as much information as possible.

"I'm still here." He didn't sound great, Alice could almost picture him grimacing.

"Hang in there, Major. We're working on the problem." Alice absently nodded slightly, agreeing with Elizabeth and got back to her reading. She thought she'd just read something about the inner door controls, but this section of the manual wasn't translated yet.

"I know you are. Listen, uh, I'd like to say something while I still can." Alice froze, she saw Radek flinch as well.

"Don't! You're gonna get through this." Elizabeth's voice tried to sound reassuring.

"If I was ... he wouldn't have let me go." Sheppard manged to breathe out.

"Who wouldn't have let you go?" Alice and Radek exchanged grimaces.

There was a long pause "...The Wraith."

Alice continued to skim through the Ancient text, suddenly she shot out of her seat "RADEK!" The Czech scientist jumped and dropped his tools on the floor. Alice threw the data pad under his nose.

"Oh my. This is it!" Radek took the pad in his hands and tried the control panels. "Dr Weir, we think we've got it!"

"Alright, patching you through" Elizabeth signed in relief. "Rodney, Dr. Zalenka and Captain Riley think they've got it."

"About time!" Rodney's voice boomed back to them. Alice could hear the medical teams arrive in the Jumper bay preparing for Major Sheppard's arrival - they'd successfully removed the bug, but his heart had stopped.

Radek quickly explained what they'd found and Rodney followed them step by step, until they heard him cry out "I think I did it! Elizabeth, I think the engine pods retracted." Alice sighed in relief and started laughing. The relief was short lasted, as the Jumper had yet to arrive and Rodney suggested blowing out the rear hatch to give them enough of a boost.

Alice and Radek looked at each other, the entire Jumper bay was deadly silent. No one even dared to breathe as they waited for news from the control room. Suddenly they heard a loud cheer go up from the control room.

Alice made her way out of the Jumper in time to see Sheppard's Jumper land and medical teams rushing in. She heard the shock of the defibrillator go off, but she couldn't bring herself to look at the Major. She turned Ford was laying on a gurney, whilst a nurse was trying to put an oxygen mask over his face. "Ford, just let them take care of you." Alice said softly, taking the mask off the nurse and placing it over his face gently. He nodded at her, but his eyes were trained on Sheppard's limp body.

Alice took another couple of steps and put her arm on Rodney's shoulder. He looked up at her briefly and smiled slightly, his eyes were clouded with guilt and hopelessness. "You did everything you could." She whispered quietly. Rodney shrugged.

Alice flinched as she watched Sheppard's body jerk as it was hit with another defibrillator charge, she could feel her throat tightening and tears burning her eyes.

"Well done, Rodney." Alice hadn't even heard Elizabeth approach them.

"We'll see." Rodney mumbled quietly, looking back down to Sheppard.

The medic continued pumping air into him, and Carson had restarted his chest compressions. The monitor finally began to beep regularly.

"We've got a pulse." Everyone exhaled at once, at Beckett put his stethoscope on Sheppard's chest. "Getting stronger!" He threw the stethoscope off and put his ear to the Major's chest "He's going to be OK."

Next to her Rodney sighed in relief, and Elizabeth sunk down onto the Jumper bench. Alice was still frozen to the stop, her throat burning and tears threatening to spill out. Slowly her and Rodney moved out of the way letting the medics wheel Sheppard out towards the infirmary.

"You did great. Thank you Riley" Elizabeth reached out and grabbed Alice's arm reassuringly. Alice just nodded, she couldn't trust her voice right now. She wasn't sure why she was so stunned, it wasn't like this was the first time she'd seen a teammate on the brink of death, or seen them resuscitated. It was like the answer was in the back of her mind, but she just couldn't see it.

"You okay Alice?" Ford's voice sounded behind her, he was once again trying to take the mask off and get off the gurney. Alice shook her head trying to forcefully clear her thoughts.

"Don't even think about getting up" Alice growled at him. Walking over and pushing him back down on the gurney. "I'll help you move him down." Alice said to the nurse, most of the medical personnel had left to help the Major.

Ford, Alice and Teyla were chatting on the bed next to Sheppard as a nurse checked his bandage. Rodney was standing beside them, piping in occasionally. Elizabeth arrived just as the nurse packed up and walked off. "How are you feeling?"

"Starving." Both Alice and Ford snickered as if to emphasise the point his stomach growled.

"He's got quite the hickey, but Doctor Beckett says he'll be fine in a few days." Rodney stated in a very matter of fact way, Ford hadn't let him forget how concerned he's been about the team's wellbeing.

"We should let you rest." Teyla looked between the team and Sheppard.

"No, you should get me food." Sheppard looked at Ford and Alice.

"I think we can arrange that." Elizabeth looked at Ford and Alice too, uncrossing her arms.

Ford took the hint and jumped down from the bed "Welcome back, sir."

"I have to admit, it is a pleasant surprise." Sheppard retorted, Alice smirked and jumped off the bed landing heavily on the floor.

They'd all started heading out of the infirmary, when Elizabeth stopped and turned around "By the way, what were you going to say?"

Everyone stopped and turned to look at Sheppard as well. Sheppard deliberately avoided their gazes "When?"

Elizabeth had a mischievous look on her face "Before, when you thought, you know ..."

Sheppard looked around for a moment, as if pretending to remember, "Oh, that."

Ford, Teyla, Alice and Rodney were all staring expectantly at Sheppard. "I didn't want you to say it at the time, but now I'm curious." Elizabeth continued to pry.

"I was going to say, um ..." He paused awkwardly for a minute and looked between the team gathered there "take care of each other."

Rodney smirked, Alice rolled her eyes and Ford scoffed. "That's nice." Elizabeth's tone revealed that she was buying it as much as the rest of the team.

"Yep." Sheppard popped his p, looking directly at Elizabeth.

"And, uh, indeed, we did." Rodney broke the silent staring contest between Elizabeth and Sheppard.

"Yes, you did. Thank you. Again." He emphasized the _again,_ causing another round of laughs from Ford and Alice.

Sheppard waved his hand at both of them.

"You're welcome." Rodney had his hands behind his back and couldn't hide the pride in his voice.

"Goodnight." Teyla rolled her eyes at all of them and began guiding them out of the room.

Alice looked back over her shoulder and shouted "Don't worry Major, I'll make sure your dessert doesn't go to waste!" Ford threw his head back and roared as Sheppard gave both of them a death glare.

* * *

A/N I'll try and get the next chapter done as soon as i can, but hopefully will be done before Monday.


	3. Chapter 3

Alice was running back through the dense forest, "Rodney move your ass!" Rodney sped past her as she fired her P90 into the trees at the advancing Wraith. "Dial the gate!" They'd reached the clearing around the Stargate. Alice took up a defensive position next to Sheppard and Ford, and pulled a pin on one of her grenades "fire in the hole."

Sheppard kept firing "McKay! Now." Alice could hear the kawhoosh of the Stargate. Sheppard looked down and punched in the code on his GDO. "Atlantis, this is Sheppard. We're coming in hot." Sheppard looked at Alice "Riley. Ford. Go!"

Alice stood up and shot a few more times behind her and ran for the gate, watching Teyla and Rodney run through. Just as she reached the event horizon, and looked back to see Sheppard hot on her tail. The wraith were emerging from the trees and firing stunners at them.

Alice flew through the gate and head first into the gateroom, she hit the ground hard and skidded to a halt. The rest of the team had turned to watch the shield go up, just as a stray stun blast flew through and hit Rodney straight in the face.

"McKay!" Sheppard and Ford ran over to Rodney as he fell to the floor. Alice saw him put his fingers to Rodney's neck "I've got a pulse."

Alice sighed and fell onto her back. Medical teams ran into the gate to Rodney, one medic headed for Alice, but she sat up and waved him off. "You okay, Riles?" Alice looked up to see Sheppard offering her his hand.

"Fine sir, thanks" she took his hand and pulled herself up. Hazel eyes met her green ones, his expression looked like he was doubting her, "really, i'm good." Shepherd's hand lingered on hers for a second before he nodded and let go.

* * *

Alice had headed back to her room to get changed, then attended the security briefing held by Sergeant Bates. She had been furious. After the meeting she'd stormed out and headed to the gym to vent out her anger. She'd taken her radio off in her room and left it there.

Alice panted heavily, she'd been sparring with a few of the marines. They'd gotten in a few lucky shots, her lip was split, but she'd done more damage, a couple were sporting black eyes, and she'd accidentally twisted one of their wrists too hard and possibly fractured it. "Okay, i think that's enough" she said in between breaths.

She wiped sweat from her forehead and flopped down onto the mat. "Riles?" Alice tilted her head up to see Sheppard walking over to her. "Venting?" he had a slightly amused look on his face.

Alice just put her head back on the mat and took another sip of water. "What can i do for you sir?" she tried to keep her tone level.

"I thought you might want a chance to get off the base?" Sheppard put his hands in his pockets and walked over so he was standing above her head looking down on her.

"I thought gate activity was restricted?" she raised her eyebrow.

"Well, they just found a roof in the Jumper bay and i was going to take out a Jumper to see the mainland. But, y'know you can just stay here beating up the kids." Sheppard shrugged and started walking away.

"Count me in!" Alice jumped up to see Sheppard had begun moving faster and was almost out of the room. "Hey! wait for me."

Alice caught up with him in no time, she wiped her forehead on her towel. "I'm guessing i don't have time to change quickly?" She watched as Sheppard looked at her outfit. She was wearing a light blue crop top and exercise leggings.

"I'd prefer if you didn't." Alice stared at Sheppard bewildered. She couldn't process anything, but she watched as he smirked and then looked forward again.

Before she could say anything she heard Ford's voice calling out. "Sir!"

"Ford!" he didn't look surprised to see him.

"Heard they got the sun roof open on the Jumper Bay." Ford had his hands behind his back, Alice could see a brown package.

"Anyone else call shotgun?" Alice realised she'd tuned out for part of the conversation.

"Just gonna drive around the planet, check it out." Sheppard shot a smile at Alice, she knew he was messing with him.

"Oh, you're just checking out the planet? Oh, never mind then, that's cool. I mean, I've got better things to do than cruise around the planet in a spaceship." Sheppard stopped walking abruptly, and turned around to look at Ford, who was pretending to sulk.

Alice put her hand up to her mouth to hide her smile.

Sheppard looked between Alice and Ford "You're both like kids, you know that?" Alice scoffed

But Ford started grinning, "yes sir" he held up the brown package "i brought something to eat on the ride."

"What's that?" Shepherd's eyebrows raised.

"How about a nice turkey sandwich?" Ford looked smug, he knew he'd won.

Alice smiled, as she watched Sheppard look at the bag. "Let's go."

* * *

 **JUMPER BAY.**

Alice and Ford had picked up their pace slightly when they'd gotten to the jumper bay. Thinking quick she shoved Ford into the wall and made a break for the Jumper. "I've got shotgun." Alice ran in and launched herself into the co-pilot's seat. Ford trudged in behind her, followed closely by Sheppard, who was mumbling something about immature kids.

Sheppard took his seat, and Ford sat behind him looking annoyed. Alice stuck out her tongue as she turned to look at the controls in front of her. Sheppard hit a few buttons and began to speak "Flight this is Jumper Three. We're go for bay launch."

"Jumper Three, you are good to go." Grodin's voice sounded through the comms. All three of them looked up through the windshield as the Jumper raised itself up through the roof and out into the air.

Alice couldn't believe it, they'd discovered a huge land mass. Of course the first thing Ford wanted to do was name it. By the time they'd gotten back to Atlantis,the Athosian's had heard about the mainland and insisted on leaving Atlantis to stay and explore it. Though Alice hadn't been overly happy with this plan, it at least meant they were able to reinstate Stargate travel, and her team had been picked to explore some ruins on another planet.

* * *

 **ALIEN PLANET.**

Alice looked around the ruins, Sheppard was talking to one of the scientists, whilst Ford and Teyla were making their way towards him. She turned her attention back to the tree line looking for any signs of movement.

"How's it looking?" Sheppard stepped up behind her.

"All good for the moment, no sign of any wraith or the villagers for that matter." Alice said glancing to take a look at Sheppard. "Y'know going off world to go explore ancient ruins always sound more fun than it is." Alice sighed slightly.

Sheppard grinned "You wouldn't be complaining to your superior officer now, would you Riles?"

Alice gave Sheppard a deadpan look "you're not gonna start pulling that crap on me now, are you?"

Sheppard looked at her for a second before shaking his head "ah, you got me there."

A moment of silence passed between the two of them "So…" Sheppard began "how are you settling in to Atlantis?"

Alice looked at Sheppard suspiciously "just fine, besides the obvious constant threat of attack from the Wraith. But y'know Goa'uld, Wraith, not much difference." She said shrugging her shoulders. "Except i do have to say Atlantis is much nicer to live in than the SGC."

Sheppard seemed amused "What about the people? I see you hanging around mostly with Ford and Teyla."

Alice wasn't sure what all these questions were about, "I mean, i guess. it's not odd to get close to your teammates. I don't see you hanging around many other people than us and Elizabeth." Alice spun to look at Sheppard. "Saying that, you and Dr. Weir seem very close."

Sheppard looked uncomfortable now "radio me, if you see anything."

Alice smirked "of course Major." She was still looking back at him, as he began to walk away.

He'd only taken a few steps when he'd turned to look back at her, she saw his eyes widen and his body tense "WRAITH!"

Alice spun round, raising her gun and saw Wraith soldiers starting to emerge from the surroundings. She started firing at them, blasts from their stunner flew past her. She cursed under her breath she needed to get out of the open, just as she thought that she felt herself being launched backwards. Someone had grabbed the handle of her vest and pulled her behind one of the ancient columns.

Expecting the worse she spun around and found herself millimetres away from Sheppard's face. She could feel his breath on her face and his hazel eyes were staring into hers. "Thanks" she managed to breath out. His gaze momentarily dipped to her lips before he nodded and twisted around to start firing. "Stackhouse! Dial the gate!"

Alice and Sheppard had managed to make their way gradually back through the ruins and close to the Stargate. Sheppard gunned down two more guards "Move out!" Alice watched the scientists head through the gate, she watched Stackhouse and Sheppard shoot down another guard and vault over some of the ruins. Just before she turned around, she saw Sheppard take a Wraith stunner to the neck.

"Stackhouse. Rodney, grab the Major! I'll lay down cover fire." Alice knelt down and began firing on the closest Wraith guards.

"What about Teyla and Ford?" Rodney screamed back to Alice.

"Now!" Alice and a few of the other marines continued to fire as Rodney and Stackhouse dragged Sheppard through the gate.

"Go through the gate!" Alice waited until she saw the last marine heading towards the event horizon, then ceased firing and ran through the gate.

"Shut it down! They're right behind us!" Alice looked up to see Stackhouse shouting up to the control room. Alice ran over to Sheppard's limp form and checked his pulse, sighing in relief as she found it. She looked over him quickly, and grasped his hand. Though, she quickly pulled away as the medical teams came to take him.

She heard McKay and Stackhouse reporting in to Elizabeth, with one last glance at Sheppard, she made her way over to the three of them. "Briefing room now all of you." Elizabeth headed towards the conference room.

"How many?" Elizabeth had just waited for the doors to close.

Before Alice had a chance to speak Stackhouse spoke up "It's hard to say. Most of them were behind the tree line."

"We're wasting time here. We need to mount a rescue operation." McKay's voice was frantic.

"I am not going to send anyone through that Gate until I have all the facts, Doctor. How did Teyla and Lieutenant Ford get separated from you?" Elizabeth's voice had an air of authority about it.

Alice chimed in this time, sending a strong glare at Stackhouse "They went to check out the area and try to make contact with some of the natives to help us with the translations."

Alice was surprised it had taken Bates this long to step in "And whose idea was that?"

"Mine." Alice was surprised to see Sheppard walking into the room. "She was following my orders."

"Shouldn't you be back at the Infirmary?" Elizabeth looked suspiciously at him.

Sheppard took a seat and winced slightly, holding his side No, I'm fine. I didn't take a full blast."

"Why didn't you go with them, Major?" Elizabeth questioned.

Sheppard looked at Alice and Rodney before replying "Well, the natives of that planet are easily spooked. Teyla thought we'd scare them off with a big group."

Bates snorted, "Teyla did"

"What's that, Sergeant?" Alice stepped towards Bates, she'd had her run ins in the past with Bates, but he'd never pushed it this far.

"She was conveniently absent during the ambush." Bates stood up straighter and toward over Alice.

Rodney interrupted at this point, shouting "So was Ford! Maybe it was him!"

Without taking his eyes away from Alice he replied matter of factly "I'm just stating a fact, sir."

Alice refused to drop Bates' gaze, but she heard Sheppard move behind her "Sergeant …" Bates finally looked away from Alice, towards Sheppard. "I am only gonna say this once."

Bates had a smug look on his face as he interrupted "With all due respect, Major, you can reprimand me if you wish, but it's been six times your team's been compromised. Only one Athosian knew about this last mission."

Although Alice was furious, she could feel everyone shuffle uncomfortably around her. Suddenly they turned as the Stargate started to dial in.

"We have an unscheduled offworld activation." One of the gate technicians announced to the team. They moved quickly to the control room as the gate opened "It's Teyla's I.D.C. Receiving a radio transmission."

Everyone stood tensely as they waited for the signal "This is Teyla. Lieutenant Ford has been wounded. The Wraith are closing in on our position."

Alice felt slightly relieved at hearing they were okay, for now at least. That was until she heard Bates open her mouth "You put down that shield and we could be opening this base up to a Wraith attack."

She heard Teyla cry for help again over the radio, she could't believe Elizabeth was considering Bates suspicions.

"Lieutenant Ford, can you confirm the situation?" Elizabeth looked towards the gate, the anguish clear in her face.

Alice waited for Teyla's reply "He is unconscious. Our situation grows desperate. Soon we will have no choice but to go through the Stargate."

"We drop that shield and who knows what she'll bring through that Gate with her?" Bates stood in front of Elizabeth glaring at her.

Elizabeth turned to look at Alice and Sheppard. She thought Sheppard might actually explode, he was almost shaking with rage "Open up the damn Gate!" They stared at each other for a moment.

Elizabeth broke the stare to look at the gate, "Lower the shield."

Seconds later, Teyla was backing through into the Gateroom, dragging an unconscious Ford. Alice ran down from the control room, watching as Teyla bent down to check Ford. The marines all ran forward, aiming their weapons at her. Feeling threatened she stood up and backed away from Ford nervously, staring around her at Alice and Sheppard.

Alice tried to give her a apologetic look, but she was too busy watching the guns trained on her.

"Sheppard, Bates, my office now." Elizabeth walked back up the stairs.

Alice stepped in front of Sheppard, before he could move. "You can't let them treat her like this." Alice raised her voice.

Sheppard's gaze was hard "Captain, drop it." He made to step past her, but Alice mirrored him. "I mean it Captain."

"Don't make me wish i'd left you on that planet. Sir." Alice spat the words at him.

Sheppard pulled himself up to his full height and stepped towards her, their faces almost touching. "That's enough! You're dismissed Captain!" Sheppard's eyes were furious, Alice considered saying more, but she knew she'd pushed him too far.

She stared at him a second longer before whipping her head around and storming out of the gateroom. She basically ran most of the way down the hallway to Rodney's lab.

"I can't believe him!" Alice walked in and kicked one of the storage cabinets. A loud bang sounded in the room, Alice saw Rodney flinch.

"Wh...what are you doing?" Rodney had put his hands up to his face. "What's going on?"

"Major Ferris Wheel. Can you believe he let them hold her at gunpoint. She's supposed to be part of our team." Alice kicked another cabinet.

"Can you stop destroying my lab, geez Alice. Look i feel exactly the same as you even..." Rodney trailed off, Alice looked up to see him watching the door.

She saw Sergeant Bates walking through the door with a leather bag in hand. He walked up to Rodney and dumped the contents on his table. It was easy to tell the stuff belonged to Teyla. Rodney looked furious "You want me to go through her stuff?!"

Alice glared at Bates, she hadn't moved from where she stood. "We're looking for weapons, transmitters, recording devices, anything that looks like it's beyond the Athosians' level of technology."

"And if I don't find anything, do we move on to a strip search?" Rodney said angrily.

Bates looked like he was losing his patience "Just do it." He turned and started walking to the door. He still hadn't acknowledged Alice.

Alice followed after him and moved to block his path in the hallway, he stopped giving her a slightly amused look "out of my way."

Alice didn't move, she stared up at Bates as he stepped closer to her. "Step aside Captain or i'll make you move."

Alice thrust her hand up and into Bates nose, he staggered backwards cupping his nose. His nose gushing blood. "You're going to regret this!"

Alice stepped forward and went to jab at him again. This time he was prepared though, he moved fast and gripped her wrist then brought the other hand up to her throat. Slamming her back into the wall.

Alice screamed as her head crashed into the wall, Bates' grip tightened on her throat. Alice brought her leg up and crashed into Bates' stomach, he groaned and released his grip.

They exchanged a few more blows, Alice was thrown to the floor. Kicking out she caught Bates' leg and as he came down she kicked up into his head. Before she could act further she felt an iron tight grip on her arms, they pulled her up and held her back.

"You're going to regret this Riley!" Bates spat at her, blood flying out of his mouth.

She looked smug, he was definitely worse off than her. "Let me know the next time you want to get your ass handed to you!" She spat back.

"Let's get them away and report into Sheppard." The marine holding Alice ordered the others.

Alice felt herself being dragged down the hall, her glare didn't leave Bates' until she couldn't see him anymore.

Alice sat on the edge of her bed, her head, lip and throat was pounding. Bates must have landed a few lucky shots, her lip was throbbing, and blood had begun dripping down and into her eye. She knew she was waiting for Sheppard to come in and reprimand her.

She heard the door open behind her, "i got this, you can wait outside." Sheppard paused and then continued around the room to sit down next to her. He winced when he looked at her. "Oh geez Riles. What did you do?"

Alice wiped the blood out of her eye, "I'm sorry Major, I acted rashly. I know I shouldn't have but he was asking for it." Alice turned her head to look at Sheppard.

Sheppard pulled his hand up to wipe away some of the blood. "Look, i'm the first one to admit that Bates certainly had it coming. And it kills me to say it... but he was actually right this time."

Sheppard's hand twitched, Alice gasped "Teyla's necklace has been sending out a subspace signal to the Wraith. She didn't know though, turns out i'd accidentally activated it when i found it." Alice looked down at her hands, she couldn't believe she was going to have to apologise to Bates. Sheppard drew in a breath "Look, you guys didn't seem to do any serious damage to each other, so how about we call it a intense sparring match. That way I don't have to demote either of you."

Alice sighed in relief, the pressure in her chest relaxing, and she nodded "yes sir."

"Just don't do it again okay Alice?" Alice looked up at Sheppard, he'd never used her name before. He held her gaze for a few seconds before pushing himself up off the bed. "Right, get Beckett to look you over then if you're up for it we're going to set up a little trap for the Wraith."

Alice stood up quickly "I'll be there Major" she paused a second "Or should i start calling you John?" she teased, trying to hide her smirk.

Sheppard mumbled something under his breath about being the death of him before walking out "I need you geared up and ready to go in two hours. Meet us in McKay's lab" he called back to her, without turning around.

* * *

Alice went and got checked by Beckett, she had a couple butterfly clips put in the cut on her forehead, but other than that the damage was mostly bruising. Apparently, she'd be sporting a swollen lip for the next few days. Hurrying back to the armory, she grabbed her gear and headed for Rodney's lab. She'd arrived early and only Rodney was in the room.

"Hey" she said softly, watching him look up at her with a mix of emotions on his face.

"You alright? I heard about what happened with Bates." Alice just nodded and hung her head slightly ashamed.

"Well." Rodney said with a new amount of determination and confidence "I'm glad someone did it to him. Although, I wish you didn't have to get hurt too."

Alice shrugged "he's got a mean right hook, i can tell you that." She lifted her hand up to lightly brush over her lip. She turned her head as heavy footsteps sounded down the hall.

Sheppard and Ford made their way into the lab with a big box. Rodney started twitching and fidgeting with his hands. "You seem nervous" Sheppard sounded mildly amused.

"No. I'm a part of this team. I'm doing this." Alice rolled her eyes, Rodney wasn't good at hiding his nervousness.

Sheppard looked at Ford and then back to Rodney "Yes, you are. I just said you seemed nervous."

"Oh, really. I thought you said, "Rodney, you don't have to do this."" Ford snickered and Alice just rolled her eyes, giving Rodney a shove.

Sheppard raised his eyebrows "Yes you do."

Rodney shook out his arms and tried to channel some more strength into his voice "Damn right I'm doing this - despite the fact the feeling hasn't completely returned to my extremities."

Before anyone could retort, Teyla walked in the room. Alice smiled at her, but Rodney and Sheppard seemed a bit tense.

"You're late." Sheppard said bluntly.

Teyla smiled at him, the tension disappearing "Sorry."

Ford put his business face on and cleared his throat "Now, given the Wraiths' regenerative abilities, killing one requires some amount of effort. Catching one alive is gonna be a whole other deal. For any of these options to work, your Wraith has to be on the ground."

Rodney clicked his fingers, "The last planet we visited was inaccessible by ship and the, uh, ruins around the Stargate should force the Wraith to come through on foot."

Alice was impressed with Rodney's quick thinking, and she could tell Ford and Sheppard were too "In which case," Ford placed the box he'd been carrying up on the table. "You'll be able to use these." he picked up a silver canister and held it up for them to see, Alice recognised it immediately, "This is a stun grenade. It's filled with a mixture of aluminum and potassium percolate that, when ignited, produces a high pressure wave that will overwhelm the intended target with intense light and sound." He chucked the grenade to Sheppard and passed another one to Alice. She turned it over in her hand and then placed it in one of her vests pockets. "If that doesn't get his head ringing, in addition ...you've got your taser." He picked up a standard issue taser.

* * *

 **Back on the planet**

They'd made their way back to the planet, and had taken up defensive positions around the gate. Sheppard had _volunteered_ to babysit Rodney. in reality, Ford, Sheppard and her had pulled straws. She was currently sat behind a large column with a few marines by her side. Looking out to her left she could see Sheppard and McKay sitting behind a ruined wall, for some reason Sheppard had geared him up with a P90 which he was very nervously holding onto.

Ford was somewhere over to her right hand side, out of all of them his team had the clearest line of sight and should be able to spot the Wraith first. Just then her radio crackled to life "We've got company. Four of them."

Alice gestured to her team to stay low, as she precariously poked her head up above the ruins to get a look at the gate. She could only make out two figures, the rest were blocked by either trees or more ruins. She watched silently as she waited for Sheppard to give the signal. "Alright then, we go as planned."

Alice slunk back down "Yes, sir." Ford and her replied at the same time. Alice started motioning for her team to prepare. Then peeked her head back up to watch a lone Wraith kneel down and pick up Teyla's locket. Then suddenly everything exploded, literally, the C4 that the marines set up covered the area in a shower of dirt.

Alice and her team moved, throwing a couple of grenades at the retreating Wraith. As expected this caused them to abandon their plans to hide and run right past where Sheppard and Rodney were hiding. Perfectly timed, both Sheppard and McKay stood up from behind the wall and fired at the Wraith, taking down one of the guards.

Teyla and her team took down another one of the Wraith guards, the third guard got caught by Alice, Sheppard and McKay who unloaded an entire clip each. Alice watched as the guard fell back on to the floor and they all stopped firing, kepping their guns raised. A moment later he sat bolt up right, Ford started to move towards them, but Sheppard put up his hand to stop him. "This one is ours, boys. Tasers."

Alice lowered her P90 and took out her taser, slowly they took a couple steps forward and fired. The electric cables shot out and struck the Wraith from multiple angles. Alice kept her finger firmly on the trigger, watching the Wraith convulse.

Sheppard held his hand up and they all pulled back, he handed his taser to Rodney and took a hesitant step towards the body and knelt down next to him, rolling him over.

Instantly the guard slapped a hand onto a round device on at the centre of his armour. It began to light up and beep. Alice froze "It's a self destruct! Take cover!" She watched almost in slow motion as Sheppard grabbed the guards stunner and wheel around grabbing the front of her vest as she went. She hit the ground hard, all the air from her lungs flew out of her body as something heavy landed on top of her.

Ears ringing and dust or dirt falling in her eyes Alice started coughing as she struggled to breathe. "You alright?" She opened her eyes to she Sheppard's eyes staring down at her. Still coughing she simply nodded.

Debris was still falling down around them and Sheppard had moved off her to look over at Rodney "You ok?"

Alice turned her head and had to squint to see him, he had his head flat down into the dirt. He groaned in response to Sheppard and shook his head "I'm fine. This is, this is fun for me." his voice was laced with sarcasm.

Sheppard was quickly up on his feet "Ford, check them. I'm going after Teyla."

Alice had managed to roll herself over and try to brace herself on her elbows. She was still coughing and the ringing in her ears had yet to dissipate. "I'm fine, help Sheppard!" she croaked out, crawling over to Rodney.

* * *

 **Atlantis**

Carson had given her a quick check over when they'd gotten back from the mission. Although she still had a slight ringing in her ear, he'd said it wasn't anything serious and should fade over the next few hours. She'd decided to head over to the mess hall to see if there was still any food from dinner leftover. With everything happening, sh had barely had a chance to eat.

Walking into the mess hall, she saw Teyla, Rodney and Sheppard all gathered around a table near the back. Grabbing a tray and piling some food onto it she went over to join them. Apart from their team, there were a few scientists and soldiers lingering about, with their heads down in their datapads. "Evening!" Alice greeted her team cheerfully.

They all looked up and smiled at her, Rodney scooted his chair over so she could sit down next to him and across from Teyla and Sheppard. "How are you feeling Alice?" Teyla looked at bruising that was still covering her lip. "I heard about what you did to Sergeant Bates, and i'd like to say thank you."

Alice just shrugged, not looking at Sheppard's expression "It's not a problem Teyla, i would have done it for any of our team." She heard a disapproving noise from Sheppard "But next time..." she paused "I'll try and use my words."

Rodney chuckled and Teyla smiled "Well my friends, it has been a long day. I shall see you all in the morning." Teyla stood up and nodded, everyone said their goodnights and she gracefully left the table.

Alice was picking at the food on her tray, her eyes unfocused as she let her mind wander. "Alice...hey...Aly!" Rodney's voice shook her out of her daze.

"huh?" He smiled and shook his head at her "I'm going to see if Radek's made any progress with the repairs to the City's power distributors. Can i..." Rodney pointed to some of the food on Alice's tray.

"Sure, go ahead" She moved her head to the side and let Rodney grab the food from her plate. "Ah! leave the jello!" Alice narrowed her eyes at him before he could put his hand over it. Rodney shuffled awkwardly and then headed out after Teyla.

Picking up her spoon she ripped open the cover of the jello and stuck her spoon into it. "what is it with you and jello?" Sheppard had one arm leaning on the table and the other was holding onto a spoon.

Alice looked at him appalled "It's only the best thing in the entire universe!" She put her spoon in her mouth, closed her eyes and moaned gently.

"Stop that!" Sheppard dropped his fork and pointed at her.

Alice opened her eyes, they were full of mischief "make me" she enunciated each word slowly. Sheppard continued to glare at her, as she dipped her spoon down and got another spoonful of jello. She loved annoying Sheppard, he seemed particularly prone to her, and unlike Rodney, he incited it as much from her as she did from him.

"i'm warning you Riles..." Sheppard threatened, Alice had to contain her smile as she slowly lifted the spoon up to her mouth.

"But it's just so good" she moaned, about to place the spoon in her mouth. To her shock Sheppard jumped up and threw his hand over her mouth. Alice dropped her spoon out of surprise.

She tried to ask what he was doing but it only came out as a muffled noise, she looked up at Sheppard with a look of defiance. "I did warn you" Sheppard's voice was low, he had his eyebrow raised smugly.

Slowly he pulled his hand back from her mouth, "You're no fun" Alice just pouted. "What are you doing this evening?" Alice pulled her spoon back up from the table. Sheppard watched her closely as she put it back in her mouth, without the noises this time.

When he was satisfied she wasn't going to moan again, he returned to his seat. "Probably just read. How about you?" he pushed his chair back so he was leaning on the back two feet.

"I dunno, I'm too awake to try and sleep. Maybe go see if anyone is around in the gym for sparring, or go bug Ford or Rodney, that's always good fun." Alice shrugged and scraped the last bit of jello out of the cup.

"you and Ford are quite close aren't you?" Sheppard said nonchalantly.

"I guess, he's a good friend." Alice said slowly.

"Well, if you need a sparring partner i'd be happy to take you on." Sheppard dropped his chair back down onto all four legs, giving her a challenging look.

"if you can't even land a blow on Teyla, what makes you think you stand a chance?" Alice lent across the table, narrowing her eyes.

"Oh that's it. Meet me in the gym in 10 minutes, and we'll see who's better. Last one there has to set up the mats" before Alice could agree Sheppard had leaped up and taken off running down towards his quarters.

Alice changed as fast as she could and made it to the sparring room as quick as she could. "You cheated!" Sheppard was standing waiting in the room for her.

"Sorry Riles, you lose." Sheppard pointed to the heavy mats against the wall. Throwing him a frustrated look she walked over and threw the mats onto the floor. Sheppard kicked them into position and then took up position and waited for Alice to join him. "Don't worry, I'll try to avoid your bruises."

Alice stepped onto the mat and faced Sheppard, he raised his hands up to his face. Alice moved first, launching herself forward and trying to get underneath his guard. Sheppard reacted quickly though, bringing his arms down to block her arms, grasping onto her forearms and pushing her backwards. Alice didn't allow a pause as she spun around and hit out with her elbow trying to catch Sheppard's face. She had him moving back and on the defensive.

This continued for a few minutes, neither had made much headway. Although Alice had managed to land a blow on his chest, which had winded him slightly. They now stood opposite each other again, breathing heavily. Alice was trying to plan her next move when Sheppard struck out with his right arm, Alice moved quickly to avoid the strike and brought her left arm up to block him. Once she felt her skin contact his, she twisted herself around and pushed her leg up with as much force as she could. Sheppard moved quicker and was able to bring his arm back to grab her leg in a brace.

Pushing himself forward he was able to swipe Alice's other leg out from under her and slam her body down onto the mat, pressing his body down on top of her. "Okay! I give in." Alice threw her hands up next to her head.

Sheppard laughed victoriously, and released her leg which caused his body to drop down towards her. She shut her eyes expecting an impact, but he'd managed to put his arms out and catch himself above her. Breathing heavy, Sheppard's head was just hovering above Alice's. He still had a proud grin on his face.

Alice's gaze flickered down to Sheppard's mouth, before coming back to look up at his eyes. She could see a spark of conflict happening in his eyes, but she wasn't sure about what. "I win" Sheppard breathed, his face lowered slightly. Alice felt a cold shiver go through her body, without really thinking she threw her hands up onto Sheppard's shoulders and twisted around, catching him off guard and throwing him onto the ground reversing their positions.

Alice had Sheppard's shoulders pinned and was straddling his waist, "you should know not to let your guard down..." she lent down next to his ear "John..." she let his name hang in the air, before she sat back up and started to move off him.

As soon as she'd moved her hands off his shoulders, she shoved herself up from the ground and stood up. "I say you got lucky this time. I expect a re-match soon." She laughed reaching over and grabbing her water bottle from the floor.

Sheppard hadn't moved, she turned back to look at him curiously, "You okay Major?"

Sheppard twisted his head to look at her, his eyes were dark and he had a guarded expression "I'm looking forward to it" his voice sounded tense.

Alice headed back to her room, showered and flopped down onto her bed. She kept replaying the sparring match over in her head, she thought there was something she was missing. After about 10 minutes of not understanding she huffed, frustrated and closed her eyes. She'd barely drifted off when hazy images of Sheppard leaning over her and lowering his head came into her mind. She suddenly jolted up and out of bed, he'd been going to kiss her, she was sure of it. "But it's against the rules" Alice mumbled to herself. She was incredibly confused, she hadn't noticed anything before this to suggest Sheppard had feelings for her. She convinced herself she was just jumping to conclusions and she'd misread the situation. Allowing that to close off her mind, she finally let herself sink back on the bed and fell into an uneasy sleep.

* * *

It had been a couple of weeks since the 'sparring incident' as Alice had dubbed it, she still hadn't been sleeping well. They'd been on a couple of missions since, and thanks to Rodney fiddling around with a ZPM and energy shields had almost gotten them killed by the Wraith, Elizabeth had ordered them all to take a couple of days to rest up, before their next mission. When they weren't on missions, Alice had found it too confusing to be around Sheppard, so she'd been mostly avoiding him.

Today, she was avoiding him by spending the day training with Ford. "Alright, this time try to get me off and my hands away from your chest" Ford held up his gloved hand, he'd insisted on drawing Wraith marks on it as a way to make the training _more realistic_. Alice had just laughed at his ridiculousness, he could be such a child.

Breathing heavily she waited for Ford to 'sneak' up on her and attack her from behind, as he had been doing most of the day. She heard his footsteps as he ran towards her, although instead of going into the manoeuvre they'd be practicing, he grabbed the back of her neck whipped his body around and thrust his Wraith hand into her chest her legs collapsing under the force causing her to fall back to the ground. "What was that Aly!?" Ford's voice was tense, he removed his hand as Alice started rubbing her neck.

"I was expecting it! That's not what we were practicing" Alice tried to yell back at him, but it came out more of a squeak.

"Cause the Wraith are always going to attack you the same way" Ford said plainly crossing his arms. "You've been distracted the last few days, what's going on with you?" Ford sighed and offered his hand to help her up.

"Sorry," she mumbled "I've just not been sleeping well."

Ford nodded, then looked down to check his watch "Damn. Come on, let's get moving or Sheppard will have our heads for being late again."

Alice and Ford ran back to their quarters and met up in the armory, they were running a couple minutes late, and they had just been laughing about Rodney's failed attempt to ask one of the female scientists out on a date. "There you two are... you're late!" Sheppard marched into the room, giving both of them a pointed look.

Alice and Ford looked at each other and burst into laughter again "sorry sir, we just got distracted." Sheppard eyed them suspiciously, then turned around gesturing for them to follow him. They'd run up and joined the pre-mission briefing, they were on their way to negotiate a trading deal with the Genii.

* * *

 **Genii homeworld**

Alice stepped out of the gate next to Sheppard and Ford. Sheppard took out his sunglasses and put them on. They were surrounded by long wheat like grass. "Alright - where to, Teyla?"

Teyla looked around the gate and started moving forwards "We should allow them to come to us."

Rodney already sounded fed up, "Well, if you know where the village is, shouldn't we ...?"

Teyla ignored his tone and just shook her head "They are a simple people and they trust me, but that trust was hard earned."

Sheppard nodded "OK."

Alice did a quick sweep behind her, tuning out the conversation, until Ford said "How will they even know we're here, anyway?"

Teyla stopped walking "They already do."

Alice fought the urge to raise her weapon as a man and woman walked into view. They were dressed in simple outfits, the women looked a lot younger than the man, she had bright red hair that Alice could make out from this distance.

"They look friendly enough." Sheppard took of his sunglasses and placed them back into his vest. Alice exchanged a tense look at Ford.

"The eldest one is called Tyrus. I have traded with him on many occasions" Teyla pointed subtly at the couple

"Teyla Emmagan" the man Teyla said was called Tyrus came to a stop in front of Sheppard and Teyla.

Teyla was smiling at him "Tyrus. It has been many days."

"Too many" Tyrus smiled back, his gaze swept across the team, lingering slightly on their weapons.

"Teyla" The girl had a soft voice, she couldn't have been much younger than Alice.

Teyla turned and started introducing them "This is Major Sheppard, Doctor McKay, Captain Riley and Lieutenant Ford." Alice saw Ford raised his hand up in a small wave when Teyla said his name.

Tyrus pointed at the girl next to him "My daughter, Sora."

"You must be very proud" Sheppard was looking at Sora, who had started smiling, obviously flattered. Alice felt a slight twinge of jealously flare through her as she watched Sheppard look over Sora.

"She's betrothed" Tyrus said sternly.

"I wasn't hitting on your daughter. I was just, uh ..." Sheppard looked taken back and stuttered over his words. Alice saw Ford fighting a smile.

Teyla interrupted him "They have come to trade for a share of your crops."

"Yet you bring weapons." Sora's voice lost a bit of it's lightness, raising Alice's suspicions, something didn't sit quite right.

"Only to defend ourselves" Ford replied smiling back at her.

Alice rolled her eyes, and took a deep breath. The last thing she needed was the male members of the team fawning over some girl.

"We'll take you to see Cowen." Tyrus nodded to Sora

She turned and gestured to them "Follow me."

Sheppard turned and looked at each member of his team before nodding and following after Sora.

It didn't take them long to get to a small settlement, where Sora led them into a wooden house. She held the door open and ushered them in and then invited them to sit at the table. Alice had shaken her head and remained standing, as did Ford, they casually looked around the room and out the windows.

A middle aged man, who Alice assumed was Cowen, approached the table to discuss the trade.

"And these medicines are potent?" he said finally.

"They're capable of stopping bacterial infections entirely." Rodney looked shocked at his indifference.

"It would help us through a harsh winter" Sora piped up from the other side of the room.

Cowen finally sat down at the table. "Hmm. We will need more than you offer." The whole team look slightly puzzled

"More?" Sheppard pressed questioningly.

"I don't think you understand how cool this medicine is." Ford turned from the window he'd been looking out at.

Alice didn't like where this was heading...

They'd all moved outside and Ford was setting up C4 around a large tree stump. "Major! i don't think Elizabeth will agree with this." Alice hissed at Sheppard, though he just ignored her.

"Cover your ears!" he shouted as Ford ran back to join them. Alice turned away, annoyed at being ignored, but quickly plugged her ears with her fingers.

She saw Ford grinning like a child and pulling up the antenna with his teeth "Fire in the hole!"

Alice watched as the tree stump exploded across the field. The villagers took their hands from their ears, and stared in amazement.

Still grinning, Ford turned to address the villagers "It's called C4."

Cowen walked forward, looking at the debris around the tree stump, then turned back to the team. Alice noticed a strange expression cross his face. "If you can supply us with a sufficient quantity of C4, we will supply you with the crop you require."

"So, this instead of the medicine" Sheppard clarified.

"As well as the medicine" Cowen had turned to look at Sheppard with a stern look now.

"Really?! That wasn't impressive enough?" Sheppard gestured to the small crater where the stump used to be.

"It is you who are in need" Cowen stated, his face hard.

"Well, I'll have to discuss this with my people" Sheppard looked around at his team, suddenly looking nervous.

"I'm sure we can come to terms. Teyla, thank you for bringing us these new trading partners. Please, stay as our guests. There will be a harvest ceremony later." He nodded at Teyla, then turned and headed back towards the house, followed by the other villagers.

"Wonderful!" Teyla grimaced, Alice felt her stomach drop, this wasn't going to be pleasant.

"I'll be back soon." Sheppard announced after whispering something to Ford, and turned back towards the gate.

Rodney looked at the remaining team and then pointed towards Sheppard, "I should go back with the major."

Ford looked bewildered, Alice kept her face blank and moved over to Teyla and Ford to head back to the wooden house.

* * *

The harvest ceremony as it turned out was just the Genii way of saying they were having a massive piss-up. Alice looked bewildered around the room, everyone was extremely merry and had a cup of something in their hand. It was a completely different atmosphere to the one they'd originally arrived with, Alice could feel herself relaxing and starting to let her guard down.

"We give thanks for a plentiful harvest" Cowen was in the centre of the room and raised up his cup to the ceiling.

"We give thanks" the villagers chanted in response, all raising their own cups above their heads.

"May next season be as fruitful" he shouted above the cheers, then turned to where Ford, Teyla and Alice were standing "And to our new friends." He raised his cup towards them.

"New friends" Tyrus chanted along with him, another woman had come past at this point and shoved a cup in both Ford and Alice's hands. Everyone tipped their head back and drank, Ford didn't hesitate but just the smell of the liquid burned the inside of Alice's throat.

Ford spluttered and sprayed his mouthful everywhere "Moonshine?!"

Alice laughed "Taking it like a real man Ford"

Teyla smirked and raised her glass "I thought you were man enough." Ford looked horrible, he was still coughing as Teyla and Alice laughed.

"I don't see you drinking it?!" Ford managed to get out staring at Alice.

Alice smiled, raised her cup and down the contents. As she expected it burned her mouth and throat, she only just about to managed to stifle her cough as she swallowed. One thing she had learnt in basic training was how to drink like the other soldiers. Ford looked at Alice in shock. Alice swallowed quickly to make sure her voice would be clear "you were saying?"

As it always did with Ford, the drink became a game, for every shot Alice could down Ford agreed to take her security detail shifts. Currently, she'd managed four more shots of the vile Genii drink. And it was starting to affect her slightly. "That's four shifts now Aiden!" Alice slurred slightly.

Ford had only managed to drink two cups, but with the strength in these things he was feeling it too. "Both of you, I don't think it's wise to have any more." Teyla took the drinks out of their hands. Alice looked at her and pouted.

Sora laughed and tipped her own cup back.

Alice saw Cowen walk over to where they were sitting. "If you'll excuse me, I must go tend to a dispute."

Teyla smiled up at him, but Alice could see it looked forced "Is everything alright, Cowen?"

Alice couldn't hear his reply as Tyrus and Sora stood to follow him.

It wasn't long until the party vibe started to fade, the Genii in the house started whispering amongst themselves and staring over at them.

Ford lent in towards them "I'm getting a weird vibe all of a sudden."

Alice expected Teyla to say he was imagining it. "I agree. I have never seen the Genii behave this way."

Alice suddenly felt extremely sober, looking at Ford they all started to stand. "Listen, we're just going to step outside and see if Major Sheppard and Doctor McKay are back" he kept his voice light and friendly.

Tyrus and Sora came hurrying over to them, blocking their path, "no-one must leave. It's not safe."

Alice had a skeptical look on her face, Sora was staring back at her "There's a Wraith ship in the area." Alice felt a deep cold feeling spread through her.

"Wraith? Are you serious?" Ford stepped forward.

"We need to warn our friends" Teyla's voice held a lot of authority, she tried to move past the two Genii.

"You will draw them to us. Everyone must stay indoors." Sora put her hands up to stop them.

Alice stepped back and looked around them, she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She felt threatened and she knew it wasn't because of the Wraith. Teyla has stepped away as well, moving towards where their equipment was stored. "Do you sense any Wraith?" Alice whispered, as the bent down to get their things.

Ford was next to them, listening intensely. "No" Teyla whispered back.

Ford nodded, placing his equipment on himself "Listen, we just wanna take a look outside."

"We can't let you. It's not safe" her voice was almost quivering now.

"We can take care of ourselves" Teyla reminded her.

Alice heard a beeping noise coming from Tyrus, he pulled up his sleeve and revealed a radio-like device attached to his arm. Alice looked at Teyla in shock.

"Tyrus, please respond" Cowen's voice sounded through the device.

Tyrus lifted his arm up, not taking his eyes off them "Receiving."

Teyla was staring at him in amazement and shock.

"Bring them" Cowen ordered.

Tyrus took his eyes away from them and murmured "Understood." Putting his arm down he looked back at the three of them, "Relinquish your weapons."

Alice acted quickly, her senses were slightly dull from the alcohol, but she was still fast. She took out the two men next to her, and started towards the next couple, when she felt the barrel of a gun touch her forehead. Sora had her arm extended "You will not be harmed."

All around her, villagers had drawn their guns. Alice looked at Ford "You guys are full of surprises."

Sora nudged her gun into Alice's head forcing her to move. They were led out of the village to an underground entrance. Alice was led away from Teyla and Ford, now only Sora and one other guard were surrounded her. Alice collapsed forward, pretending to seize up. Sora and the guard jumped forward to grab her, when they did Alice struck out. She kicked Sora in the face and grabbed the guard by the throat.

Alice didn't act quick enough, more guards came around the corner and pulled her off the guard. They threw her against the wall, her head snapped hard against the concrete and everything went dark.

Alice slowly opened her eyes, the room was dark her head was throbbing. She tried to lift her arm, but it was stuck down beside her. Alarmed, she looked around her and realised she was alone in a room and was tied to a chair. She didn't know how long she'd been out of it.

She heard movement outside the door, there were footsteps approaching. Two Genii soldiers walked in the room, Alice struggled against her binds grunting in frustration. Sora walked in behind them "cut her loose".

Alice froze, the two guards walked up beside her and began cutting the ropes, "where is my team?!"

Sora nodded to the two guards "come with me and you'll see them. But i'm warning you, if you try anything..." she pulled out her gun and pointed it at Alice. "I won't hesitate."

Sora led Alice down a corridor, towards a large door "Riley!" Sheppard's voice sounded from around the corner.

Alice walked quicker now, bursting through the door "Sheppard?" Alice saw her whole team pacing in the room. "Thank god you're all okay" she sighed.

Teyla and Ford had rushed forward to greet her "why'd they separate us all, what's going on?" Alice looked at Sheppard, he looked uncomfortable.

"Actually they only separated you, you were too um..." Sheppard paused awkwardly.

"You gave them a bit too much trouble Aly" Ford chuckled, slapping her on the shoulder, "you okay?"

Alice nodded "a little headache, that's all." Everyone looked relieved, "so, what's going on guys?" Alice looked expectant at Sheppard.

"We've come to an arrangement" Sheppard moved closer and explained what she'd missed.

When he finished Alice pinched the bridge of her nose, "fantastic, another party..."

* * *

They were all sat around a large table - Cowen, Tyrus and Sora, along with some other Genii scientists joined them. A meal had been laid out in front of them.

Cowen raised his glass "We give thanks to our new friends."

Alice grimaced, she couldn't stand to drink anymore of this stuff.

"We give thanks" the Genii chanted around them.

Everyone drank, Alice brought the cup to her lips but didn't drink any.

"Please, eat." Cowen gestured to the food. "I hope that by sharing this meal, we can make up in some small way for past offences."

"I'm sure we'll get along just fine" Sheppard smiled.

Cowen smiled at him, and then looked at Rodney. "What method did your people use to initiate fission reaction in your prototype devices?"

Alice brought some of the food up to her mouth, she wasn't sure about this. She looked as Sora was staring at her from across the table, she had a bruise forming slightly on her face. Alice couldn't help but smirk.

"With your help. Before the next culling, we plan to vaporise the Wraith as they sleep." Cowen had just finished saying as Alice turned her attention back to the table.

Teyla's face was serious, she turned and gave Sheppard a sharp look, he just looked innocently back at her "What exactly is your plan?"

"We intend to take advantage of their over-confidence. That is their weakness." Cowen said.

"'Over-confidence.'" Sheppard repeated. Alice knew where this was heading, and it wasn't good.

"We had hoped to test our first atomic weapon five years from now. Do we have that much time, Sheppard?" Cowen's gaze was hard again.

Sheppard hesitated, Cowen started to turn red "Do we?"

"No" Sheppard stated bluntly.

Cowen slammed his hand down onto the table angrily as he stood up. He then turned and stormed out of the room. Sheppard looked at his team, before jumping up and follows him.

* * *

 **Atlantis**

Sheppard, Ford and Alice walked back through the gate. Teyla and Rodney, had been kept behind to _fix the bombs._ In other words, they were being held hostage to ensure Sheppard held up his end of the bargain.

Alice breathed out, she was relieved to be back in Atlantis. "Captain, a word please. Ford start debrief Elizabeth I'll be back up in a minute." Sheppard's tone was hard.

"Of course" Alice winced and looked at Ford, he gave her his best good luck face. She followed Sheppard into the side room off from the gateroom.

"Look, I'm only going to say this once." Sheppard hadn't even waited until the door closed. "We don't take unnecessary risks." his voice was getting louder as he spoke

"Hang on a minute" Alice stepped towards Sheppard "that's not fair."

"They had guns pointed at your head, and at Teyla's and Ford's, and you thought it was a good time to...what..be the hero?" Sheppard turned around and dragged his fingers through his hair. "You're lucky they didn't paint the wall with you".

"i was doing my job!" Alice raised her voice. "We were threatened and I reacted, exactly like you would have in our situation!"

"You were being reckless. They could have killed you!" They stood staring at each other.

"Isn't that the risk every time we step through the gate?" Alice said back, they stared at each other for a few seconds "if there isn't anything else...sir"

Sheppard turned around and waved his hand dismissively at her. Alice spun around and headed for Elizabeth's office.

* * *

 **Wraith** **planet**

Alice sat in the back of the Jumper across from Tyrus. They'd just come through the Stargate and were proceeding to the dormant hive ship. Tyrus stood up and began looking around the ship, Cowen was up front with Sheppard, she could hear them talking about the ship. Her and Sheppard hadn't spoken more than a few words to each other since their confrontation, she was already feeling uneasy and this just added too it.

When she looked up, the entire windscreen was filled with the hive ship looming in front of them, Sheppard guided the cloaked jumper through a large opening in the side and landed on a large walkway. Alice checked her gear and stood up preparing to leave, Sheppard opened up the rear hatch and began to move outside. He looked around cautiously, before turning back to face Ford and Alice "OK, hold the fort you two!"

Ford nodded "Yes sir. Good luck" Alice wanted to argue, but she bit her lip. Sheppard looked at her briefly as if expecting resistance, then turned and headed out into the ship.

Alice watched Sheppard's back until she couldn't see it anymore, then stepped back inside the Jumper moving to the cockpit "I should be able to follow their progress on the ships life signs detector."

"Cool" Ford sat himself down in the co-pilot seat, "so what's up with you and Sheppard?" Ford said casually, not looking at her.

Alice sat down and starting hitting buttons watching the hud come to life and the watching the five life signs move their way through the hive, "I don't know what you're talking about."

Ford scoffed "yeah right, I could feel the tension between you guys since we got back to Atlantis." Ford swiveled his chair around to look at her.

"He just freaked out on me for no reason" Ford nodded slowly, Alice still refused to look at him "we all accept the risk that every time we step through the gate, we might not come back. But, he's right. My actions put both you and Teyla at risk. I'm sorry."

Alice looked at Ford, he was smiling slightly "what are you smiling about?"

Ford held his hands up in surrender, "nothing, nothing. I just don't think it was my life the Major was overly concerned with."

Alice huffed "what are you talking about."

"Teyla and I both got chewed out too." Alice looked over at Ford confused "You should have seen Sheppard when you didn't come in with us. We got an earful about letting them separate us."

Alice was confused now, "oh, they're splitting up" Alice pointed to the screen, watching as three dots headed down the north hall, whilst the other two headed for a large chamber.

"I wonder who is who" Ford looked up, "I bet that's Teyla and McKay" Ford pointed at the two dots.

"I don't think so..." Alice said quietly, thinking. "I reckon that's Sheppard, McKay and one of the Genii, and the other is Teyla. I don't think Sheppard would let Rodney out of his sight. He's the one the Genii need the most."

Ford nodded in agreement, they watched silently as both groups stopped. Suddenly one of the two dots, headed away from the other and more white dots began appearing around them. "Something's wrong"

Alice had barely gotten the words out when they heard the ships alarms sound. Ford stood up and headed to the back of the Jumper, grabbing extra ammo. "Should we radio them?"

Alice hadn't taken her eyes of the screen "no, it doesn't look like Sheppard's group has been noticed, if we radio in we might give away their positions." Alice paused and closed her eyes to think for a minute. "Right, let's gear up and be ready to lay down some cover fire. Hopefully they can get back to the jumper, if not then we'll dial Atlantis and get reinforcements."

Ford nodded, looking back at the screen, the lone dot was almost at them. Ford moved to the edge of the Jumper, rifle aimed as Teyla came sprinting around the corner. Ford stepped out of the cloak so she knew where to run. Once she reached the Jumper she turned raising her weapon "Wraith guards."

Alice prepped the Jumper for take-off "I'm ready, let me know as soon as Sheppard's group is on board"

"Go, go, go" Ford yelled up at Alice. Alice closed the hatch and took off, guiding the Jumper out through the same opening.

Alice felt Sheppard put his hand on her shoulder, "dial the gate" she nodded towards the DHD. She was still new to flying and it took most of her concentration to keep the Jumper going. Alice landed the Jumper and breathed a sigh of relief, she was exhausted. She knew she'd have to put more hours in on the Jumpers.

Walking out of the Jumper, they saw a group of Genii led by Sora approach them. Her eyes searched over the faces of the team "Where is my father?"

Cowen walked over and looked down at her "He did not survive."

Everyone was quiet, Alice felt Teyla stiffen beside her. "How? What happened?" Sora's voice cracked with grief.

"I think we should find out" Cowen looked up "Take aim!"

Many Genii - some in uniform, some in their farmers' clothes - burst out of the trees and bushes nearby, aiming weapons at Alice and the team. Alice brought her P90 up to her face, but they had been completely surrounded.

"Cowen, I thought we were just learning how to get along" Sheppard took a step back so the team were back to back.

Cowen looked at Teyla "She killed Tyrus"

"No" Teyla sounded distraught

"By leaving him to die, you may just as well have killed him yourself" Cowen accused

"He shot the man we tried to save" Teyla sounded like she was trying to explain herself more to the team than Cowen.

"It was a mistake to try and save anyone. It jeopardised the mission." He reached into her pocket and took out the Wraith data device "we will keep this intelligence information."

"You're the one making a mistake" Sheppard's voice was level and cold. Alice looked at the soldiers gathered around them, there was no way they'd be able to take them out before getting shot themselves.

"And your ship, and whatever quantities of C4 you have in your possession" Cowen gestured to the Jumper

"That is all you ever intended. To use us" Teyla spat the words out at him.

"And for your efforts, I will spare your lives" Cowen made it sound like he was the most generous man in the galaxy.

"Generous of you!" Rodney shouted, echoing Alice's thoughts.

"Guess the tava beans are off the table" Alice rolled her eyes, leave it up to Sheppard to make a joke in this position.

"Your weapons" As Cowen said it all the Genii around them took a step forward.

"No, I don't think so" Sheppard stood his ground.

"We have the advantage, Major." He gestured around at all the soldiers surrounding them.

"Well, I lied, too" Sheppard activated his radio "Jumpers Two and Three, execute"

Alice looked up to see Stackhouse and Marks sitting at the controls of their Jumpers, weapon pods activated.

The Genii stared up in amazement

"You didn't really think we had one ship, did you? Tell your people to get back and nobody get hurt." Sheppard's voice was mocking as he stepped forward.

Cowen hesitated, "Jumper Two, prepare to fire on my mark." Alice tensed, she knew it was a bluff but just incase she wanted to be prepared for a fire fight.

"Wait!" Cowen called out, looking at Sheppard "Do you promise to leave?" his looked defeated now, his posture shrunk down.

Sheppard stepped closer to him "Well, that's the plan. Guess we'll have to go somewhere else to find our tava beans. But ..." he reached out and took the data device from Cowen's hand "... I think it's only fair we end up with something."

Cowen stared at him threateningly, "you do not want to make an enemy of the Genii."

Sheppard held his gaze "You know what? Same here."

Alice began shuffling back towards the Jumper, her eyes darting to the soldiers around her making sure none of them made any moves. Once she was clear of the ramp, she ran up to the cockpit and slipped into the co-pilots seat. Sheppard was right behind her and began firing up the engines.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N** Here we go again!

Hope you enjoy reading my latest chapter!

 **Disclaimer: I don't own any characters or plots of Stargate Atlantis, with the exception of Alice Riley.**

Alice was sitting alone in the mess hall, picking at her breakfast. She was lost in thoughts about their last mission. It had been over a week since they'd all experienced highly vivid hallucinations about returning to Earth. Similar to the others, once she'd _returned_ to Earth she was told she'd been re-assigned back to the SGC and would no longer part of the Atlantis expedition. She'd later found out Ford had experienced a similar dream. Alice had been assigned and re-assigned a lot during her short military career, so it wasn't like it was anything new. But she hadn't been prepared for the wall of fear, loss and panic that had hit her when the fake General Hammond had told her the news.

She'd pictured the face of her team members, lingering on one in particular. But the news that had caused the most shock to her system was when she'd confronted Sheppard about it, he told her he was the one who'd recommended the re-assignment as he no longer trusted her abilities.

She'd known that none of it was real, now, but her vision had played out some of her worst nightmares and she was finding it hard to shake the memory of them. "Good morning my dear, you're here early" Carson had put his try down opposite her.

Alice smiled weakly at him "Morning Carson"

Carson looked perky and beamed back at her "I thought you didn't have another mission scheduled for a few more days." He took a bite out of his toast.

Alice stretched her neck side to side "no, we don't. I just haven't been sleeping too well recently."

Carson stopped chewing and looked at her seriously "i have to say you don't look great, if you're really struggling you should come by the infirmary and I can give you something to help."

Alice shook her head and tried to look more alert "I'm fine Carson, really you don't need to worry." Carson looked like he was about to object, so Alice tried to distract him, "so, what have you got planned for today. You're up early."

He let out an exasperated sigh "Nothing interested, just routine medical check ups. Make sure none of you have brought back any space bugs. One of Rodney's teams also found what looks to be an Ancient medical scanner, so we're going to check that out today."

Alice nodded, "that actually sounds quite interesting." She looked down at her food, she didn't have much of an appetite. "i'm going to see if Ford or Rodney are around. I'll see you later doc." Alice gave Carson a two finger salute and headed out the door.

She headed to Ford's room first, waving her hand over the door chime, "come in!" she heard him yell.

"Hiya!" she called as the door opened up. Ford was sitting on his bed with a datapad on his lap, she walked in and threw herself down onto the sofa. "I'm so bored Ford!"

Ford chuckled "so, you decided to come bother me?"

Alice glared at him, "well, since Sheppard and Teyla are off to the mainland this morning, I thought we should spend some quality team building time together. Come on, I'll even agree to some of your Wraith training."

Ford shook his head, "Sorry Aly, I've got to get these mission reports done. I'm about three weeks behind."

Alice groaned "you're so useless," she sat up and stomped out of his room. But before she got to the door her radio activate "SGA-1 please report to the conference room."

Alice grinned and fist pumped "come on Ford!" she bound her way up past the control room into the briefing room. Elizabeth, Teyla and Sheppard were already there. They waited until Rodney, Ford and Radek joined them, then all took their seats.

"Well basically, if you have a situation where there are a bunch of hurricanes out there, the likelihood of two colliding is greatly increased - that's what's happening." Rodney was gesturing in front of a Ancient screen showing the storm patter.

"It's more like a merger than a collision. They are intersecting and combining their power" Radek pointed out the directionality to the team.

"And" Rodney paused, his glum face sweeping across the room "it's headed right towards us."

Elizabeth sat up and put her hands on the table "You just said the Ancients experienced these storms every twenty to thirty years. Atlantis must have some sort of precautions put in place."

"In the past, the Ancients have been protected by the shield or submerged deep enough in the water not to be affected." Rodney explained.

"OK - strike those options. What else have we got?" Sheppard was leaning back in his chair, he didn't look overly concerned at this point.

Both Radek and Rodney looked blankly at them. "Nothing." Radek finally said, "It is a real threat. The high winds alone will wreak havoc."

"C'mon guys! This city's been around for a long time. This is Atlantis! I mean, they've gotta be able to handle that ... right?" he'd sat up now, finally looking concerned.

Rodney looked helplessly at him "No."

Alice listened to them talking about the city sinking, although 20 minutes ago she'd been wishing for something to happen, she didn't expect that they might have to face losing the city today.

Elizabeth's voice rang out "Alright, what's the plan?"

"By my calculations we have just under, what, twelve hours until the storm hits, so, uh, we plan to have a plan ..." Rodney looked hopefully at Radek, who nodded and mumbled in agreement.

* * *

 **Rodney's lab**

"No, no, no, no, no, I've already thought of that" Rodney said dismissively. Alice had her head down on the desk, they'd been at this for a couple of hours already, and they hadn't gotten any closer.

Radek gestured to the scientist Rodney just dismissed "He may be onto something." Alice could tell Rodney was trying Radek's - and everyone else's - patience.

"I've already thought of it - it doesn't" Rodney droned out "... Yes, the naqahdah generators could be used to power select sections of the city but when you subtract the areas that need to be secured just to protect themselves, it doesn't leave much power to shield anything else and the city breaks apart because of a tidal swell." Alice wanted to bash her head against the wall. She'd had enough of Rodney's condescending tone.

"We could relocate some of them - put them closer together." Radek offered

"You're right - if only we had a magical tool that could slow down time. I foolishly left mine on Earth - did you bring yours?!" Rodney raised his voice sarcastically.

"Rodney!" Alice hissed at him, throwing him a disapproving look. "Get your head out of your ass. We're all just trying to help."

"You know, you're not pleasant when you're like this, McKay." Radek shook his head and turned back to his screen.

Alice sat up straight as she saw Sheppard and Ford heading towards them.

"Well, I got a green light from Smeadon and the Manarians. I'm not sure how pleased he'll be if we get stuck there, though." He gave a hopeful look at Rodney, but instantly frowned when he saw his expression. "That's not gonna happen, though, right?"

"Of course it's not. We can always gate off to another planet." Rodney mocked.

"Comforting! Thank you!" Alice sighed, sharing Sheppard's frustrations.

Elizabeth and Teyla walked in a couple of minutes after, they were discussing Rodney's lack of progress too.

"Well, McKay will come up with something." Sheppard said reassuringly, giving Rodney a strong look.

"I will try, but despite what you all may think, I am not Superman." he said forcefully, pointing at himself.

Sheppard just started at Rodney disbelievingly, then looked around the room "Was anyone seriously thinking that?"

Alice shook her head smirking, along with the rest of the people in the room.

"No, sir." Ford said.

"Never!" Radek scoffed.

"Fine!" Rodney held his hands up "My point is, the storm will affect over seventy percent of the mainland, and Atlantis isn't safe either. If you want everyone to live, you gate them offworld."

* * *

Ford and Teyla had gone to help out with the evacuations on the mainland, and Sheppard was in charge of the main evacuation in the control room.

"Rodney, just hear me out..." Alice was trying to intervene, she'd had an idea, but every time she tried to speak Rodney just held his hand up to her. "You've been at this for hours, what harm can it do to listen to one measly idea? Especially from someone who can break that hand if you hold it up to her again." Alice put her hands on her hips.

Radek snickered and smiled at her "It can't hurt at this point McKay."

Rodney finally looked up, with an unamused face. "I'll give you 30 seconds."

Alice sighed, "well, what's the main thing stopping us from getting the shield operational?" she saw Rodney's mouth go to open but she continued on "power, right? Well back home all across the world we harness tidal and wind power from storms, so why can't we do it here?"

Radek jumped to his feet "Lightning?" he turned to face Rodney, just as he was also jumping to his feet. Alice took a surprised step back, then watched in surprise as both scientists took off running towards the control room. Alice activated her radio "um... Elizabeth, I think McKay and Zalenka have an idea." quickly she took off after them, trying to catch up.

Alice must be getting out of shape, she'd never seen Rodney run so fast, even when they were fleeing the Wraith. She'd just caught up to them in the control room, hearing them explain the last bits of the plan to Elizabeth. "OK, so we should still evacuate." It sounded like she was on board with it.

"Yes, but not just because of Zelemka's pessimism" he had a confident smile on his face.

"Zelenka." Radek looked unimpressed and Alice's just rolled her eyes, then looked at Elizabeth "If the plan works, the city will become highly charged with electricity. Really, the only safe place to be once the lightning begins to strike is ... in the Control Room."

"Mmm. We need to evacuate everyone offworld until the storm passes and execute the plan with the smallest team possible" Rodney pondered.

"OK, good. Get on it" Elizabeth nodded at the two of them, the two moved off and started bickering again. Alice moved to follow them, "Riley, could you let Sheppard know the plan and pick a few men to stay behind."

Alice nodded and started considering the best options, mentally ticking off one of those positions for herself.

* * *

Alice was back in Rodney's lab, listening to him go over the finer details of the plan with Sheppard. She already knew her part of the plan.

"Elizabeth - you take grounding station two; I'll take grounding station one; Major - you take stations three and four. and Alice you take station five." Rodney pointed to each of them as he spoke.

"Whoa, whoa, wait a second" Sheppard stepped forward look at the map of Atlantis "where are stations three and four?"

Rodney pointed to two spots on the map at the very edge of the city, "Here, and here."

"And we are ...?" Sheppard didn't look happy.

Rodney pointed close to the centre of the map "Here, yes. I need to get done quickly so I can start working on the subroutines, and Elizabeth was complaining about her knee the other day ... Alice's one is on the other end of the city too!" he said defensively, Alice just shot Sheppard an amused look.

"Wait, wait, wait a second. Are these things even close to a transporter?" Sheppard stared at Rodney questioningly.

Alice turned to the map and looked at the best path to her station, it looked like if she took the closest transporter, it would still be a couple of minutes run to the station.

"Alright. Let's do it." Sheppard motion to the door and they all set off to get their stations done.

It didn't take Alice long to get to hers, she'd radio'd Rodney who had just finished his and he let her know the dialing code to put in. She watched as the column detached from itself and turned to head back to the control room.

Alice walked back to the transporter, she'd managed to get hers done quicker than anticipated, so she was taking her time getting back. She heard one of the guards reporting in over the radio about incoming wounded, Elizabeth and Rodney were much closer and had made their way there already. Alice started jogging and listened to Elizabeth and Sheppard talk over the radio "I'm about a minute away." She informed them.

"Doesn't make any sense. They said it was Wraith-related?" She heard Sheppard ask through the radio.

"We'll ask them ourselves in a second - hold on." Alice was close enough now to hear Elizabeth shout out "What the hell is going on?"

Freezing, she stopped and listened. She turned quickly and made her way up to the top of the control room.

* * *

"Sheppard, come in." she was precariously perched in the stairway above the control room. She'd been watching the Genii from her position, trying to get a count on them and figure out a way to get Rodney and Elizabeth out of their grasp.

Before he could say anything Rodney's voice sounded through the internal comms system "Elizabeth, just give him what he needs. He needs the C4, the medical supplies and the Wraith data device - just give them to him. None of that's worth dying for." the system shut down. Alice thought about making a break for the armory but she was cut off from it at the moment.

"Receiving, are you okay?" Alice moved back into the hall away from the control room, making sure her voice wouldn't carry.

"Yeah I'm fine, looks like there's only a handful of them. Small strike force, but some of the guards just split up and headed down towards the labs with Elizabeth." Alice peeked back around the corner and saw only one or two guard left guarding Rodney. "I'm cut off from the Infirmary, but i think i might be able to get Rodney out."

"I'll take care of the armory, do what you can to get McKay away from them." Sheppard's voice clicked off. Alice let out a deep breath, as she looked back down she saw one of the Genii soldiers pull out a knife and walk towards Rodney.

"Dammit." She only had her sidearm with her at the moment, she quickly checked the number of rounds she had. Moving quickly she poked her head around the corner, took aim and fired. The guard holding the knife dropped to the floor, Rodney looked up stunned and terrified. Alice moved quickly, jumping down the stairs she fired on the other guard. "Rodney, let's go!"

She gripped his arm and tried to yank him with her, but he was frozen to the spot with fear, "Rodney we need to move!" she said desperately. She looked side to side and heard footsteps approaching them. Rodney still hadn't moved.

Alice was about to drag him when she her shoulder exploded into pain. Alice screamed and dropped to her knees, she saw blood spray across Rodney's face. "You must be Captain Riley" a man's voice sounded behind her.

Alice was in too much pain to turn, more soldiers arrived at this point and pulled Alice up to her feet. The man walked towards her, "that was a foolish move, now I've got another hostage. You really should have moved when you had the chance Doctor McKay." Alice groaned, the soldiers were gripping her shoulders tightly, making pain surge through her.

"Find out what she knows." the man, obviously the one in charge, said to his guards.

"I'm sorry!" Rodney whispered as they started dragging Alice towards the conference room.

"Don't tell these bastards anything Rodney!" Alice managed to shout, she watched Rodney's terrified eyes look between her and the man in charge. Then he was blocked from her sight by the massive doors sliding shut.

The guards threw Alice hard against the floor, she cried out in pain as her shoulder impacted the hard floor. "Get her up." one of the guards said.

She could hear them moving behind her, and pulled her up to a kneeling position by her hair. "how many more of you are there on the base?" the first one said. Alice clamped her jaw shut, look the guard defiantly in the eye. He waited a few seconds and then his fist made contact with the side of her face.

The force would've sent Alice toppling over, had the other guard not been propping her up. Blood dripped from her open mouth. "How many more are on the base?" he repeated his question. Alice continued to stay silent.

The guard paced back from her, he'd repeated his question and various other for the past 5 minutes. And Alice had said nothing. her face was drenched in blood, and she knew she must at least have a couple of broken ribs. He turned back, "where is Major Sheppard?" Alice spat out a load of blood at his feet.

He moved forward and plunged his finger into her shoulder wound. Alice screamed in agony, her entire body quivered and she struggled against him. One of the other guards rushed in the room and whispered something in his ear. then he removed his finger and nodded to the guard holding Alice. She felt herself being dragged across the floor back out to the control room.

The guard dropped her body down on the floor in front of Rodney's feet. "She hasn't said a word sir" the guard reported.

Ignoring the pain, Alice pulled herself up into a sitting position. She saw an annoyed look pass across his face. "Nevermind, Dr. McKay was kind enough to fill us in on his plan to save the city."

Alice's jaw dropped as she drew in a sharp intake of breath, she turned to look at Rodney. He was clutching his right arm, she could see blood seeping out from under his jacket. Rodney bent down to help Alice stand. He kept whispering sorry to her, Alice struggled against him. "I really tried." he whimpered.

Alice hugged him "it's okay Rodney", she pulled back and tried to give him a reassuring look.

Elizabeth waked back in with Sora and a few more guards. "Oh my god, Riley" she walked over and started looking at the damage. Alice couldn't stand up any longer and slumped into a chair. She'd looked up and noticed Rodney's arm too. "What'd they do to you?"

"I tried to keep my mouth shut, I tried - I just couldn't ..." he whispered fearfully, trailing off as the leader approached them and held out one of our radios.

Alice lent forward and pulled her jacket off her, groaning in effort, she pushed the jacket against her still bleeding gunshot wound.

"What's the meaning of this?" the man said.

"I honestly have no idea" Elizabeth was helping hold the pressure on Alice's wound.

"It's a radio." Rodney snapped "The arrow points to the 'talk' button."

The man pressed the button and began to talk "This is Commander Kolya."

Alice strained her ears to hear Sheppard's voice sound through the device "Kolya - that's a hard name to pronounce. Is that a first name? My name's Major John Sheppard and I have hidden the C4 where you will never - I repeat, never - find it. When I get confirmation that the prisoners have been safely released and allowed to gate off Atlantis, I will help you find it."

Kolya smirked in approval to them "He's good."

"Yes, he is. I'd do what he says" Elizabeth said proudly. Rodney was looking back down at Alice helplessly.

Kolya activated the radio again "Your offer is very generous, Major. However, Doctor McKay recently shared with me there's a plan in action to save the city."

Alice took in another deep breath, her arm had started to go numb. Kolya had turned away so she couldn't hear Sheppard's reply.

"He did, he was a lot more forthcoming than your Captain Riley." he let the words hang for a second before continuing "My understanding is there is one final grounding station that needs to be deactivated. Uncouple the grounding rods at Station Three, assist with the reactivation of the shield, and you and your friends can leave here unharmed."

"Wait a minute - I thought all you wanted was C4 and a Jumper." Sheppard replied.

"Why raid a city when you can seize it, Major? Atlantis will be ours or the ocean's. You choose." he put the radio down and turned back to Alice, Elizabeth and Rodney.

* * *

Kolya had returned to Elizabeth's office, "I'm going to try to reason with him, Rodney take care of Riley." Elizabeth walked away from the across the gangway.

Alice moaned softly, "Rodney" he looked at her terrified "I need you to grab a bandage out of my vest over there and apply it to my wound."

Rodney shook his head "no, no, no, I'm not that kind of a Doctor."

Alice reached up and gripped the front of his jacket, "Rodney, if we don't stop the bleeding. i'm going to bleed out." She said sharply.

Rodney nodded and moved to her discarded vest, grabbing out one of the large bandages, and started wrapping it around Alice's wound. "is that okay?" Rodney asked nervously as he watched her flinch when he finished tying the strap.

"Yeah, you did good Rodney. Don't worry Sheppard will get us out of this." Alice pushed herself into a better position and looked over to Elizabeth's office.

Kolya was talking on his radio again, then stood up and began walking back to the control room. She could just make out what the soldier on the other end was saying, "He's stopped - he's not at the control panel any more. He's looking around."

"Hold your fire." Kolya ordered

"Those control panels are pretty fragile - you might not wanna ..." one of the guards came up and gripped Rodney's injured arm, he let out a cry of pain. Alice glared at the soldier and then back at Kolya.

She heard gunfire over the radios, panic flared in her chest as everyone in the control room tensed.

"Let me tell you what you did wrong here, Kolya." Alice breathed a sigh of relief as Sheppard's voice came across the radio "A: you lost two of your men. B: you damaged the switch before I could separate the grounding rods, which I'm sure you're gonna get an earful from McKay for; and C: you lost all of what little credibility you had with me."

Rodney had found his mouth again "D'you have any idea of how big a setback that is? I may not even be able to activate the shield. I mean, I can't possibly ..." the soldier grabbed his arm again, but this time Rodney pushed him off "get off me!"

"You killed two of my men." Koyla watched the exchange between Rodney and the guard with narrowed eyes.

"I guess we're even!" Sheppard said.

"I don't like even." Alice flinched back as Kolya pulled out his pistol.

"I'm not finished yet!" Sheppard shouted through the radio. Alice's eyes were trained on the gun barrel. It was currently pointing at Elizabeth.

"Neither am I. Say goodbye to Captain Riley." Kolya turned the gun on Alice, she heard Rodney whimper in fear again. Her breath was coming in shallow and quick bursts, her military training kicked in and she quickly began running potential escape scenarios in her head. None of them ended well.

"The city has a self-destruct button. You hurt her, I'll activate it. Nobody'll get Atlantis." Alice barely heard what Sheppard had said, keeping her eyes locked on the gun. Elizabeth tried to move, but Alice turned her head to glare at her.

"Even if it exists, Major, you need at least two senior personnel to activate it - and I'm about to take one of them out of the equation." Alice lifted her head, and pushed herself out of the chair. She wasn't going to let him shoot her sitting down.

"Kolya?!" she could hear Sheppard bargaining for her life, tears burned in her eyes and her throat was constricting. But she refused to give him the satisfaction of seeing her fear.

Elizabeth was staring at Kolya "How is this gonna help you get what you want?"

"Sheppard put you in this position, not me" Kolya replied, not taking his eyes of Alice.

Rodney stepped in front of Alice, putting himself between her and Kolya's pistol.

Alice stared at him in utter shock. "Rodney" she hissed.

"You can't do this. This is crazy. You need her."

"I'm not kidding. Captain Riley is the only one who knows how to initiate the final sequence, she's one of the best in Ancient systems" Rodney lied through his teeth. Alice sucked in a breath, she knew Kolya wasn't going to buy this, there was nothing she could do that Rodney or Elizabeth couldn't.

"Rodney, get out of the way" she kept her voice level and low, hoping that it wouldn't carry to Kolya.

The fact a gun was pointed at him suddenly, dawned on him as his demeanor change and he help his hands up placatingly.

"Well, you can't do this without me either. I mean, we're a package deal. You take us out of the equation and-and-and-and you don't have an end game." Rodney rambled on.

Kolya stared at him silently, not moving his gun.

"Granted, that's a – that's a chess term. I'm-I'm ... My point is, we're the only ones who can fix the Grounding Station, we're the only ones who can activate the shield, we're the only ones who can solve problems I can't even think of yet! You kill any of us and you don't get what you want." Rodney started stumbling over his words, Alice couldn't believe what she was hearing. The last person she ever thought would be trying to save her life was Rodney.

Kolya started to lower his gun, he took a step forward. "Doctor McKay..." Rodney closed his mouth and looked at him. "Say goodbye."

Alice closed her eyes as she felt another round go into her chest. "Aly!" "Riley!" she heard Rodney and Elizabeth yell out.

Alice coughed as she felt blood coursing up through her throat.

Kolya turned around and picked up the radio again "Major Sheppard. How's this for credibility? Captain Riley is dead." Alice felt herself drifting out of consciousness.

* * *

 **A/N:** I hope you enjoyed the new chapter!

Please let me know what you think about Alice and Sheppard's relationship so far.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N** Heya! Sorry not sorry for leaving you all with a giant cliff hanger, but hopefully this chapter sums it up nicely.

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has followed, favorited and reviewed my story so far. I really appreciate it and it gives me the motivation to keep going.

So without further ado... enjoy the next chapter

 _Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or plots from Stargate Atlantis, with the exception of Alice Riley._

* * *

Alice felt like she had a massive weight on her chest, she tried to move but spasms of pain radiated across her chest. She tried to breathe in but she felt like her airway was blocked. She let out a small cry, as she felt hands on her torso.

"Don't move, you're making the bleeding worse" she didn't recognise the voice, but she obeyed.

She felt the tightness in her chest grow as something was pulled tightly across it. "Laydon! Is there anything else you can do for her?"

Her head felt foggy as she tried to clear her mind "I've pretty much stopped the bleeding, we're lucky Kolya wants to keep her alive."

Alice groaned, trying to push them off her. Her vision had returned and she saw two Genii standing over her. She looked down at her chest, and saw another white bandage covering her left side. Kolya had managed to clip her ribs, enough to damage her but non-fatal. But her head was still spinning from the blood she'd lost.

The two Genii moved away from her, and back to the life signs detector. Alice tried to hear what they were saying as she dragged her self up to lean against the post of the control panel. The tightness in her chest she realised must've been from the earlier beating, and her muscles seizing up from laying down.

As Alice continued to push herself up carefully, all the lights in the control room died. Alice smirked as she heard Sora report that Sheppard had just cut power. She looked around and saw there was only a couple of guards nearby, no sign of Rodney or Elizabeth.

She heard the Genii talking amongst themselves, the Stargate had started to dial and Sora took the two guards down with her to greet what Alice assumed would be reinforcements. She looked around her to see if she'd be able to pull herself up, to see if she could reach the shield.

"Alice!?" A voice whispered out to her in the darkness, she turned around and saw Sheppard creeping towards her. His eyes were full of relief, but turned to panic when he looked down at her body. "Oh crap...Can you walk?" he walked closer and put his hand on her face.

Alice shook her head, "don't worry about me! you need to stop them!" Alice gestured towards the gate. Sheppard hesitated for a second, but nodded and moved over the Genii stood at the balcony. Quietly he knocked him out then ran to activate the shield.

Alice had pushed herself up and was trying to stand. She heard Sora cry out from down in the gateroom. Sheppard grabbed Alice's arm and threw her over his back in a fireman's hold.

"Stop him!" Sora pointed at the two of them. Sheppard ran for Elizabeth's office and out through the side corridor, firing his P90 blindly in the direction of Sora and the Genii soldiers.

* * *

Sheppard ran down multiple halls until he came to he came to one of the labs, bending down he pulled Alice off his back and helped her into a chair.

Alice was breathing heavily, Sheppard was running his hands over her face and sides, checking her injuries "I'm fine, just a bit banged up." she said trying to smile, but it came out more as a grimace.

Sheppard's hands stopped moving, slowly he raised his head to look at her, Alice's breath caught in her throat when she saw the expression on his face. Before she could say anything she felt his hands move up to cup her face and he brought her forward to kiss her.

Alice froze, before she could react Sheppard pulled away from her and rested his forehead against hers "I thought he'd killed you." His voice was strained and heavy.

Alice looked up into his eyes and whispered "I'm still here."

Sheppard smiled back at her, "I've got to finish this, are you okay here?"

Alice nodded, he pulled his head away and took a 9mm out of his leg holster "take this" he handed over the gun, her hands were shaking slightly as she ran her hand over his to take the weapon. "shoot anything that's not me...i'll be back soon" he turned to leave.

"John!" Alice tried to step off the chair, Sheppard turned to catch her. She gripped the back of his neck and pulled him down into a kiss. His arms snaked around her waist and lifted her back on the chair "make them pay."

Sheppard nodded and with one final peck, turned and left the room.

It hadn't been long till she heard footsteps approaching. Alice had put her gun down and was trying to re-wrap the bandage on her side, which had started bleeding again. Dropping the bandage she picked up her gun and aimed it at the door, then standing there with his hands held up was Carson.

"Carson" Alice breathed in relief, she lowered her gun and watched as he rushed towards her.

"Oh dear god, what did they do to you?" Carson started examining her, when Alice suddenly feel her body give way and she collapsed onto the table.

* * *

Alice was sat up in bed in the infirmary, the nurse had just changed her bandages. She'd heard about what had happened once she'd passed out and was relieved to hear everyone had made it through in one piece. Alice grabbed the datapad off the side of the table and started reading.

"Well, don't you look better" Carson came around the corner, smiling at her.

"Hey Carson, so when can i get out of here?" Carson checked her chart and just shook his head

"Tomorrow, my dear." Alice made a face which made him laugh "but the good news is that you've got some visitors here to see you." Alice looked up to see the team coming around the corner.

"Wow Aly you look terrible!" Ford joked, Alice threw him a dirty look. But she instantly forgave him as he produced a jello cup, her lips pulling back into a wide grin, "thought you might need this."

"We are very glad to see you're doing well." Teyla squeezed her hand and bowed her head slightly.

"It's great to see you guys, how's your arm Rodney?" Alice looked at the white bandages stick out from under Rodney's jacket.

"Oh...um...y'know fine" he said slightly embarrassed.

"You did great Riles" Sheppard said, he was standing at the back of the group giving her a small smile.

Alice returned it, her cheeks burning slightly as she looked down at her jello cup, remembering their few moments in the abandoned lab "Thank you Major."

"Now, Rodney and I need to have a quick chat about keeping his big mouth shut." Sheppard slapped his hand hard on Rodney's shoulder, who flinched away.

"Get some rest, you'll be up and fighting baddies in no time." Ford joked, jumping up and down and Teyla laughed. They all moved to leave, Carson following them. Alice closed her eyes and let herself fall asleep.

* * *

It had been a couple of days since she'd been released from the infirmary, she was almost 100%, it just occasionally hurt to breathe and her shoulder felt unusually tight.

She was making her way towards the south pier, Ford had mentioned to her that Sheppard had said he'd be there if anyone needed him. Alice saw the door she was looking for, taking a deep breath, she stepped forward and activated the door panel. She saw Sheppard leaning against the balcony. "Hey" she said lamely.

He turned around to look at her "come here" he tapped the railing next to him.

Alice walked out to join him staring out at the ocean, "I can see why you like this place, the view is amazing."

"Riles..." Sheppard paused "Alice... i'm sorry if I've made you uncomfortable. I just..." he was looking down at his hands. He turned to look at her, bringing his hand up to place it on her cheek, "we could lose everything..."

Alice lent into his hand "I know, but..." she took a breath "We both almost died this week... can't we be just a little bit selfish, for once?"

John continued to look at her "are you sure?"

Alice laughed "kiss me before i change my mind" John smiled and wrapped his hand around the back of her neck to draw her into a searing kiss.

Alice's whole body reacted to him, she turned her body and brought her hands up to his neck. She could feel the short buzzed hair at the back of his head. He moved his hands down to her waist and tilted her back a bit. Alice pulled back to gasp for air, John brought his lips down kissing her jaw line and down her neck. Alice closed her eyes tilting her head to the side to let him have better access.

He stopped for a second and Alice felt his head move away, she opened her eyes to see him staring back at her. They looked at each other, breathing heavily when he crashed his lips against hers again, moving his hands down he broke the kiss for a split second to dip down and pull her legs up to wrap around him. She could feel them moving backwards until she felt herself hit the wall, she laughed slightly "aren't you eager."

John smirked at her "you have no idea," and pulled her in for another kiss. He moved his arms up from her thighs to her waist, lifting up her shirt slightly touching the skin of her stomach. Alice gasped and he took the opportunity to slip his tongue in her mouth, everything was hazy now as she lost herself in the feeling of his kisses and soft caresses.

"John..." he pulled back at the sound of his name and rested his forehead on hers. He kissed her softly once more, and let her legs slide back down onto the floor.

She gave him an apologetic look "I promised i'd meet up with Teyla..."

John groaned "I finally get my hands on you..." he dropped his head down and kissed her again.

"Tonight" she dug her nails into the back of his neck and brought her mouth close to his ear, "meet me in my room."

She kissed him once more, and then stepped away. She couldn't help but laugh at his slightly disappointed look "see you later Major" she winked and walked out the door.

* * *

She'd spent the afternoon sparring with Teyla and they'd decided to head over for a quick bite to eat before calling it a night. It was a warm night, so they'd chosen to eat outside.

"So, you were saying earlier you don't have time to date. But does anyone take your fancy? any dashing marines? or maybe one of the Athosians? Last time we were on the mainland, there were definitely some men that had their eyes on you" Alice took a bit of her food, smiling as Teyla shifted uncomfortably. "I knew it, there is someone!"

Teyla just shook her head "There was someone, but it's very difficult to maintain any kind of relationship doing what we do."

"He's Athosian right?" Alice smirked and watched Teyla take a deep breath. "Look it's okay, you don't have to say anything."

Teyla relaxed now, "thank you." She took a bite of her own food then "How about you? are you seeing anyone?"

Alice shook her head, and took another bite of her food. "Really, cause i always thought you and Major Sheppard would be good together."

Alice almost choked on her food then, Teyla looked alarmed. "What...no...it's against regulations."

Teyla laughed "See how it feels."

Alice glared at Teyla, before laughing herself. She looked at her watch quickly "sorry Teyla, I've got to get some sleep. I'm heading out early with Rodney to check out some derelict Ancient satellite. Good night!"

Alice hopped up and headed back to her room, she showered quickly and got changed into one of her standard base uniforms. She was laying on her bed, looking through her datapad when the door chimed. Alice felt her heart fluttering and she put the pad down and walked towards the door.

He stood at the door in his uniform, his dark hair messy and his hands behind his back "Hi Riles, I was just in the area and thought I'd stop by" he gave her an amused look.

Taking a quick look up and down the hall and seeing no-one she grabbed a fist full of John's shirt and dragged him into her room giggling "you're ridiculous."

The door closed behind them, John cupped her face and started passionately kissing her. Alice smiled into his lips, she brought her hands to his neck and started pulling up his shirt. He broke away from her for a moment to pull his shirt the rest of the way off, he put his hands on her waist and started dragging her shirt off and over her head. They looked at each other for a moment, Alice placed her hands on his stomach and started moving her hands up to his neck. She paused as she reached his dog tags gripping them in her hands and tugging his head down so his lips crashed onto hers.

The next few moments were a flurry of touches and kisses, as they start undressing each other. John walked forward, pushing Alice back until her legs hit the bed. Slowly they lowered themselves onto the bed. Alice's heart was beating fast, John kissed her softly, he reached up and stroked her hair away for your face "you're so beautiful."

* * *

Alice heard the beeping of her alarm, she yawned and started rolling over. John moaned beside her, reaching up to switch off the alarm. "Morning" he whispered softly in her ear. Alice smiled and buried her face into his warm chest, his arms tightening around her. "We should get up" he laughed softly. He started trailing his fingers up and down her spine, Alice shivered in response.

She pulled back and propped herself up on the bed, John put his hand under his head "I could definitely get used to this." Alice lent down and kissed him.

Alice sat up and picked up her shirt from the floor "are you going to get up at all? y'know you can't let anyone see you leaving my room..." she pushed her loose hair back off her face.

Ignoring her comment, John sat up and wrapped his arms around her and pulled her back down, "You don't happen to need a pilot for this mission today?"

Alice playfully slapped his shoulder and straddled his waist "I think Rodney planned on flying this one himself, so i could definitely use a more experienced flyboy."

John ran his fingers over her stomach and up her side, coming to rest where she was recently shot, "are you sure you're up for a mission already?"

Alice pulled her shirt up to look at the injury, the scar was still bright red but the stitches were gone and Carson had cleared her for duty, "I'm fine, almost good as new." John gave her a dubious look and she pulled her shirt back down "It's a 15 hour ride in a Jumper to go look at a satellite that's been floating in space for 10,000 years. Not exactly our most dangerous mission..."

* * *

They'd been flying for 13 hours now, and John estimated they still probably had a couple of hours to go. Alice had alternated between, reviewing files on her datapad and chatting with the two scientists they'd brought along. She'd returned up to the cockpit to watch Rodney fly the Jumper, after 13 hours of incessant whinging John finally gave up and let him have a go. Alice could see John tense everytime the Jumper shuddered or Rodney made a face. It reminded her of when her dad had first taught her to drive, and he'd been so afraid of her messing up his car.

"Ease up on the controls a little." Alice smirked as John's jaw tensed and he gestured to Rodney.

"I'm fine." Alice could see Rodney's knuckles going slightly white as he gripped the controls.

"You're gonna snap the damn things off. Ease up!"

"I'm just seeing what this baby can do." Rodney had tried to make his voice slightly deeper as he said this.

"Did you just say "this baby"?!" The scientist Abram's scoffed

"That's perfectly appropriate space pilot parlance." Rodney defended himself.

"Please never say it again..." Alice muttered, earning a laugh from John and Abrams.

Rodney glared at John, who tried to turn his laugh into a cough. "Just try to fly the "baby" in a straight line."

"I am flying in a straight line." Rondey snapped back.

Alice smirked "oh really..." she lent forward and tapped a couple of controls making a screen appear on the windshield. It showed a straight line in comparison to the route that Rodney is flying, which is all over the place.

"Not so much." John smirked.

"Well - in space all motion is relative." Rodney blushed slightly.

Alice laughed and sat back in her chair, in her peripheral she could see Dr. Gaul, the other scientist who was part of their mission, looking like he might be sick any minute.

He groaned loudly, causing John to look back and see his green face. "Are you OK, Doctor Gaul?"

"I-I get, uh, motion sickness." he started fanning himself with a piece of paper.

"Do you want some water? or maybe a bag?" Alice scrunched up her face, the last thing they needed was to have the smell of sick lingering the rest of the journey.

John looked like he shared Alice's feelings "These things have inertial dampeners. You shouldn't feel a thing."

"Well, I-I-I know we're moving. That's enough for me." Dr. Gaul stuttered.

"Let me see if we've got anything in the medkit." John nodded at Alice, before he turned around and lent into whisper something to him.

Alice moved back into the cargo area and pulled the medkit from the storage rack. Sifting through the contents she pulled out some pills.

Alice turned her head as she heard John yell at Rodney not to let go of the controls. She handed the pills to Dr. Gaul and walked up placing her hand on the back of John's chair.

John looked up at her "This is why parents get someone else to teach their kids how to drive."

Rodney scoffed and looked over at the both of them laughing "I am both insulted and touched by that."

"Oh my God!" Dr Gaud had stood up and joined them at the controls.

Alice followed his eye line and saw the outline of a object in the distance, and if they were still as far out as John believed this thing was huge. Alice stared in awe at the massive satellite.

"McKay ..." John's voice was tense

"Yes, yes, of course, please." He quickly took his hands of the controls and jumped back out of the seat. John stood up and slipped into the pilots chair.

Alice moved back to let him pass, "Riles..."

Alice nodded and slid into the co-pilots seat. Bringing up the control panels "scanners online...i'm not picking up anything from the object."

John nodded "Holding station at one thousand metres."

"Almost half a mile away and it's filling the windshield. This thing is enormous." Rodney was leaning forward and looking out the windshield.

"It's as large as a Goa'uld mothership. This might be the single largest weapons platform ever constructed." Dr Gaul's voice sounded next to Alice.

"Probably the Ancients' last line of defence before Atlantis." Rodney said more to himself

"Any chance it's still operational? Because that would be a very good thing." John looked over his shoulder to the two scientists, they checked their instruments but shook their heads, "So it's dead."

"Well, it warrants closer scrutiny but ... yeah." Dr Gaul sounded like he was scared John was going to turn around now and call it a day.

"There's no telling what kind of condition it's in..." Alice checked her readings again.

"Knocked out during the Ancients' last stand?" John asked.

"Or its power source is depleted. Ten thousand years is a long time. We could still take a closer look." Rodney sounded like an excited child.

Alice smiled over at him "Well... we did come all this way."

"Wait, wait. I'm getting something in the ultra-low frequency range." Alice hesrd Abrams tapping on his keyboard and then a loud repeating pulse sounded through the loudspeakers.

"Where's it coming from?" John looked over to Alice, she was already working on the controls and brought up a map of a nearby planet.

"Oh no..." Alice murmured.

"A distress call. A Wraith distress call." Rodney had a slightly horrified expression covering his features.

—

They'd just landed the Jumper down on the planet, the area around the crashed Wraith ship seemed to be a most barren desert. Rodney, Abrams and Gaul had all exited the Jumper, scanning the surrounding area.

Alice was slipping on her vest and loading her P90. John was a few steps away doing the same. "We'll check out the ship, see if we can salvage anything." John stepped close to her and quickly looked over her shoulder. "You were the only thing keeping me sane after 15 hours stuck in this can with them." John slowly zipped up Alice's vest.

"I know what you mean. I can't wait for the 15 hour return trip..." Alice rolled her eyes.

Alice raised up onto her tip toes and kissed him quickly on the lips. "Let's go."

Alice could already hear Rodney and the other two bickering outside, John sighed and stepped out of the Jumper.

—-

John took the lead and Alice had taken up the back. Although she could hear Rodney complaining still about the distance. It took them about 20 minutes to reach the Wraith ship.

As they approached John held his hand up and signalled for them all to lower to a crouch. Alice grabbed the back of Abrams jacket and pulled him down as he stood looking confused. "Stay down" she whispered to Abrams and Gaul as she moved past them to where John was.

They all crept up the closest dune and looked down on the ship. Alice and John pulled out their binoculars to check for any movement.

"Have you seen one like this before?" Abrams whispered next to them.

Without taking his eyes off the ship, John replied "It's too small to be a hive ship."

"Well, it's been here for a very long time. Maybe they've discontinued that model." Rodney theorised.

"Or it could be something else we've not seen before... there's still a lot we don't know about the Wraith." Alice scanned the wreckage looking for any potential threats.

"Maybe. Whatever it is, it took a hell of a hit." John pointed to the large hole in the front of the ship.

"Score one for the Ancient satellite." Gaul muttered.

"There's still some skeletons down there. I guess everyone didn't die in the crash. You getting any lifesigns?" John pulled the binoculars away and looked at Rodney.

Rodney gave him an exasperated look and crossed him arms over his chest "I think we can rule that out."

"It's just a precaution." John sighed.

"Fine." Rodney took the lifesigns detector out from his vest pocket "No, it's just us and the glowy bugs. Nothing coming from the ship."

"Good." John looked at the group, "Let's go take a look. Riles, I'll take point." He nodded at Alice.

"Copy that." Alice gestured at Abrams and Gaul to follow after John and Rodney who were already making their way down the dune to the wreck.

Alice stood behind John looking into the wreck, turning on the light from her P90 and shining it into the entrance.

"I'm picking up faint power readings." Rodney whispered from up ahead, he was trailing a few steps just behind John. Flinching behind him more at every sound.

"Something had to be powering the distress beacon." John stepped inside and Rodney hesitantly followed.

Alice waited behind Abrams and Gaul, Abrams paused and looked back between Gaul and her. "Come on, Abrams!" Gaul stared at him and gave him a pointed look.

"Maybe one of us should stay outside." Abrams looked terrified.

"Look, I know how you feel, but how many opportunities like this are we gonna get?" Gaul replied.

"Not many if you keep the Major waiting..." Alice muttered, "come on, let's get moving." Alice gestured with her gun into the hole.

They followed after John and Rodney, catching up quickly. They worked their way deeper into the ship Alice ran her light behind her and over the halls. They passed by a few halls, Alice thought she heard something and stopped. She took a few steps into the hall and shone her light down the empty space. She held her breath as she listened intently for any sounds, after a few seconds she turned back around and headed back towards the group.

"This guy looks like he just lay there and died." John's voice sounded ahead, Alice turned a corner and saw him kneeling down over a mummified Wraith corpse sitting up against a wall, covered in cobwebs.

"It's remarkably preserved." Rodney was stood a few steps back, craning his neck to see without stepping closer.

"Or it wasn't that long ago." John looked back at her and then at Rodney, "Alright, Beckett will want samples."

Rodney nervously looked at Alice, and then gave a John a panicked look. "It is, uh ...?" he voice was a squeak, John shot him a look "Yeah. OK ..." he crouched down beside him and brushed away some of the cobwebs from it's face. Alice gripped her P90 a little bit tighter and tensed. "What the ...?"

"OK, this is different." John cringed away from the corpse.

"What is it?" Alice shone her light down over the corpse.

"Wraith cannibalism?" Rodney brushed more of the cobwebs away from its chest, showing the distinct feeding marks.

"Looks like it." John muttered.

Alice scrunched up her face and looked over at Abrams who had taken another step away. She turned around to see how Gaul was handling this, but when she turned she couldn't see him anywhere.

"Major...where's Dr Gaul?" Alice took a few steps back down the way they came and looked around, trying to see any signs of him.

"Guys!" Alice looked back at John, who had now stood up, they both turned and headed towards the sound of Gaul's voice, Rodney and Abrams following after them.

Alice led the way, bringing her P90 up and aimed in front of her. She stepped into a large chamber, where Gaul was standing up against on the walls staring out into the chamber.

"Geez Doc, don't run off by your..." Alice stopped as she realised what he was looking at.

"They're bodies. Human bodies." Gaul whispered in horror.

"They have chambers like this on hive ships. I've never seen one so large before." John stepped forward and shone his light around the chamber.

"I don't understand." Gaul looked at John, his face still contorted in horror.

"The Wraith cocoon humans." Rodney paled "They keep their bodies in a sort of suspended animation, so later they can..." He trailed off "Yeah."

"I think we just figured out what this ship is for." John's eyes narrowed as he looked around.

"It's a supply ship, probably on its way to feed the Wraith when they were laying siege to Atlantis." Rodney sounded like he was going to be sick.

"Well, that's terrifying." Gaul gulped.

"Riles, Gaul, Abrams, check it out, but be careful." He pointed at Alice then he turned towards the exit of the chamber.

"What? No, wait!" Gaul regained his composure and moved to follow him.

"Where are you going?" The panic in Abrams voice returned again.

John's brow furrowed "Well, the ship's gotta have a bridge. Maybe we can get some useful intel."

"So you're just leaving us here?!" Alice raised an eyebrow and glanced at Abrams.

"What's the problem? They're all dead." Rodney snapped imptiently.

"That's the problem!" Gaul's eyes widened as his voice went higher.

"What am I? Invisible?" Alice quipped.

John smirked and shook his head "Just get some video and a rough head count. We'll stay in radio contact..."

"That could be difficult. This part of the ship seems really shielded." Gaul frowned.

"Weir only gave us a few hours. We'll check in every few minutes." John's jaw was tense and his tone made it very clear that was the end of the debate.

Rodney flashed a smug smile "You wanted fieldwork. This" he gestured around the chamber "this is fieldwork."

Alice watched Gaul and Abrams gape at Rodney's retreating figure. "Alrighty boys, lets get on with it." Alice sat down her pack on the floor and pulled out her video camera and handed it to Abrams.

It had been a while, Alice was walking up and down the chamber counting the pods in her head. She was chewing on one of her protein bars from her pack. Gaul and Abrams were videoing and cataloguing their findings. "I've got 175 pods along this wall" Alice shouted, her voice slightly muffled by the food in her mouth.

Gaul nodded and wrote down the number in his datapad.

"Shouldn't we have heard from Major Sheppard by now." Abrams was still jumpy and his voice strained.

Alice brought her wrist up and checked her watch "nah, but he should be checking in any minute now."

As if on cue, all their radio's clicked causing Abrams to almost jump out of his skin as John's voice came through the radio. "Riles, Gaul, Abrams, this is Sheppard."

Alice laughed and lent her head down to her radio "go ahead sir"

"Major, are you trying to scare me to death?" Gaul replied just after she did.

"I'm sorry if we're being a little over-cautious but, uh ..." Alice's brow furrowed as she listened to John's strained voice. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck begin to prickle. The radio started to break up.

"Say again Major, we're losing your signal..." Alice looked at both Gaul and Abrams, both of them frozen to the spot.

"We need to what?" Abrams stared frightened at Alice.

More static came through the radio. Alice chewed on her bottom lip, thinking through her next steps. "Alright, lets pack it up and head back to the entrance. At the very least we should get a better signal there." The two scientists looked relieved.

Alice walked over and bent down to get her pack, she quickly straightened back up as she heard Gaul gasp loudly.

She looked over at him, he was pointing panic-stricken towards Abrams who had moved back to the hall entrance, "I just saw something in the corridor behind you. We can't go that way."

Alice locked her weapon and took up a defensive stance, "okay...calm down." She turned her face down to her radio "Major, Gaul thinks he saw something. It might be blocking our way out."

"Alright, stay put. We're coming back to you." John's voice was hard, but Alice could hear a slight quiver.

"Copy that." She readjusted her grip and moved over to Gaul.

Abrams had taken out his life-signs detector, "There's nothing out here. Brendan, you're just freaking out on me."

"I'm telling you, I saw something." Gaul had taken out his and was pointing it in Abrams' direction.

"Put that thing away. You're gonna kill someone." Abrams shrieked.

"Both of you shut up and get up!" Alice hissed at them. She was straining to hear any movement around them.

"I know what I saw!" Gaul whispered, Alice gave him a sharp look. But, her eyes widened as a dark shape dropped down behind him.

"Oh my God!" Alice could her the fear is Abrams' voice. She pointed her weapon up as the Wraith hit Gaul hard causing him to fly across the room and land hard on the floor.

Alice opened fire as the Wraith started moving towards her, it snarled and ran towards her. Alice kept firing, "run!" She shouted at the two men. She couldn't turn to see them, as she kept her eyes locked on the advancing Wraith. He moved quickly, Alice tried to keep up but before she knew it he'd come close enough and hit the edge of her gun, knocking it away from her.

Before she could react the Wraith had her by the throat, squeezing tightly, he threw her back across the room. She slammed hard into the wall and then down onto the ground. She felt her nose crack against the floor and blood filling up her airways. Coughing she looked up and tried to grab her gun.

The Wraith had moved over to where a stunned Abrams stood, his body pressed up against the wall in terror. Alice watched as the Wraith stepped forward and plunged his hand into Abrams' chest. He began screaming as the Wraith snarled in pleasure.

Alice reloaded her P90 and rolled onto her side and fired again on the Wraith. He growled, but continued sucking the life out of Abrams. Alice coughed again to clear her airways, which continued to fill with blood. She could tell she wasn't doing much damage to the Wraith, as he dropped Abrams body and quickly moved to grab Gaul. Alice shouted, but the Wraith was gone, Gaul with him.

"Aly!" She heard footsteps running down the hall towards her. A moment later John appeared. He saw Abrams' withered body first and instantly came to a halt, his gun lifted in front of him. "Oh crap..." he quickly checked around the chamber then ran over to Alice.

She was pushing herself off the ground "He took Gaul!" Her voice was nasally as she reached up and wiped some of the blood off her face.

John crouched down next to her, his fingers gingerly touching her nose. "Hold on, this might hurt a little." Alice squeezed her eyes shut as John realigned her nose, she cried out in pain as she felt it click back in position."There good as new."

Alice coughed again and took in a deep breath, feeling her airways clearing a bit, but she held her sleeve up to catch the blood dripping down from her nose. John had stood up and was now looking over at Rodney, who had bent down to check Abrams' pulse.

"He is dead." He stated bluntly.

"Where's Gaul?" John looked back to Alice, who had managed to stand up and was reloading her gun.

"The Wraith took him...John, I unloaded most of a clip into him and it didn't even slow him down." Alice watched John's eye widen a fraction and his whole face looked unsettled.

He pressed his radio "Gaul, this is Sheppard. Come in."

They all waited quietly for a moment to see if Gaul replied. John looked down at his lifesigns detector.

"They're on the move." He walked over to where Rodney was standing and bent down and began rummaging through Abrams' gear.

Rodney was a ghostly white "What are you doing?"

"Taking his weapons and his ammo. Here." He handed Abrams' 9mm to Rodney. Rodney made no move to take it.

Alice scanned the chamber and moved over towards the entrance, "I already have a gun." Rodney was squeaked.

"Now you have two." John thrust the gun into his hands, then joined Alice at the entrance.

"You're not planning on going after the Wraith?" Rodney held the gun limply in his hand.

"Of course we are" Alice hissed at Rodney stepping out into the hall in the direction John indicated.

"I'm planning on going after Gaul, then I plan on getting the hell out of here." she heard John explain to Rodney behind her.

* * *

Alice followed closely behind Rodney, who was sandwiched between John and her. They were moving slowly through the ship, following the lifesigns detector. Alice was chewing on her lip, her entire body was tense. A horrific scream split through silence, John looked back at the group "OK. Stay behind me. Shoot only when I tell you to shoot." he directed the last bit to Rodney.

They moved faster now, almost at a jog towards the ear-splitting scream. The hall opened up into a smaller chamber, stopped at the sight of Gaul, who was whimpering tearfully with a large gash in the cocoon over his chest. John ran over and squatted down in front of him.

Alice moved into the centre of the room, checking for any signs of the Wraith. She shone her light around the openings and then above her into the ceiling. She could here Gaul whispering, but she was too far to hear. "No sign of the Wraith Major."

John pulled up his lifesigns detector, "He's left the ship." He started to pull the cocoon webbing off Gaul.

"It was so fast. It fed off me." Alice moved closer, keeping her gun raised. She winced as she looked down at Gaul's aged face.

"You're gonna be alright." Rodney reassured him, Alice had to look away.

"It was taking my life. I could feel it. I could feel it!" Gaul's voice was shaky and soft.

"Alright, alright, alright. Listen to me. Listen to me. You're still here. Can you move?" John kept his voice low.

Gaul was gasping, and sobbing now "Nothing below my shoulders."

Alice tensed her shoulders and stepped away, pretending to be doing a check of the passage where they entered. She tried to swallow, but the lump in the back of her throat prevented it.

"Stay with him." Alice turned to see John heading towards her.

"No" Gaul shouted at him "please don't leave us."

"He's right - we should stick together." Rodney stood up and stared wide eyed at John.

"He killed Abrams" John looked stunned at Rodney's reaction.

Rodney raised his voice obviously frustrated, "And I'm as sorry about that as you are, but just because we both made an error in judgement ..."

"I don't have time to argue about this!" John interrupted shouting back at him. "Now set your radio to Channel Two but don't use it til you hear from me." his voice was eerily calm and he made to move off down the hall.

"I'll come with you." Alice stepped behind him.

"No, you stay here with them." John didn't even look back at her.

"I'm not letting you go out..." Alice argued back.

"That's an order Captain." John whipped his head back to give her a stern look, before he ran off towards where they entered the ship.

"Major! Major!" Rodney ran a few steps after John, then turned around with his fingers braced on his head "It's fine. Just ..." he trailed off.

Alice took in a deep breath and moved back towards Gaul, "Sheppard knows what he's doing... we're all going to get out of this...okay?" Rodney opened his mouth to argue, but shut it again when Alice glared at him.

* * *

Alice paced in the small chamber, she'd taken the lifesigns detector off Rodney, shortly after John had left them. She had watched John's dot until he'd moved out of range. Approximately 15 minutes had gone by, if John had run back to the Jumper he should have made it there already.

A thousand different scenarios were running through her head, she was also trying to figure out what she was going to do, if the worst should happen. She could hear Rodney and Gaul whispering to each other, she'd asked Rodney to use the medkit and see what he could do. No matter what the outcome of John's plan, having Gaul able and mobile was her top priority. Alice was getting nervous now.

"Riles, McKay." Alice jumped slightly as John's voice sounded over the radio.

"We're here..." Alice replied back. She stopped pacing and moved back over to Rodney and Gaul.

"The son of a bitch beat me to it. He's fast." John's whispering voice said.

"I think you should get back here." Rodney looked up wide eyed at Alice. her hand was resting against the side of her gun.

"Negative."

"There's no point in you being out there." Rodney hissed down into his radio.

"He's aboard my ship." Alice shook her head at the sarcastic edge John's voice had taken.

"What are you, Captain Kirk?! What good's it gonna do him?"

"I don't know. Maybe he can hotwire the damn thing - I don't wanna take a chance." John paused, Alice and Rodney exchanged a nervous glance. "D'you have any idea how long the days are on this planet?"

Rodney looked confused "No, why?"

"'Cos I got a feeling the nights are pretty damn cold. Sub-zero cold." John's voice had lost it's jokey edge.

"Major, you don't stand a chance against him alone. Please let me..."

"Negative Captain, you stay put." Alice had to stop herself from swearing out loud. She was of much better use to him out there than stuck in here.

"We're six hours overdue. Assuming they waited an hour before sending a rescue mission ..." Rodney was gazing off into the distance thinking about how long they'd have.

"There's a very good chance it's gonna be dark before another Jumper can get here." John finished what Rodney had started saying. "If we play the waiting game, the guy who's been around for ten thousand years is gonna win."

"Major, anyone or anything capable of surviving that long is gonna be a serious adversary."

Alice nodded in agreement, "I already emptied a clip into him."

"Well, not if I get him out in the open. If all goes well, I'll fly the Jumper back and pick you up." his voice was annoyingly optimistic.

"You'd stand a better chance with two of us" Alice snapped into the radio.

Rodney shook his head "And if all doesn't go well ..."

"It will. Try and stay positive. How's Gaul feeling?"

Rodney sighed "He can move his toes."

"See? Things are looking up. Right radio silence. Sheppard out."

Alice looked down at Rodney and Gaul, "I hope he knows what he's doing Alice..." Rodney gave her a skeptical look and then went back to bandaging Gaul's chest.

* * *

Alice had gone back to pacing again, her eyes locked on the lifesigns detector.

Rodney was massaging the fingers of one of Gaul's hands. "Yeah, what did I tell you, huh?"

"Rodney. It's OK." Alice stopped pacing, Gaul's voice was a lot weaker now.

"Water. You probably need some water." She could hear Rodney unscrewing the lid of his canteen.

"Riles." Alice moved away from the two slightly.

"John! What's happening?" she hissed into the radio

"I thought you should know - round one was a draw."

Alice rolled her eyes at John's airy tone. "That doesn't sound good."

"I took some fire."

Alice's breath caught in her throat "What? Is it bad?"

"I don't think it's too bad." she heard the sound of his pistol locking "My P90's out of commission. He found a 9 mil in the Jumper - figured out how to use it pretty fast."

"Did you manage to hit him?" she kept her voice low, so not to alarm Gaul and Rodney

"Yeah, I put at least twenty shots into him and a couple more for good measure. I've seen Wraith go down and stay down with far less. This guy's different somehow."

Alice signed "I told you, add my clip into the mix as well. Doctor Beckett has theorised that the Wraith's ability to heal itself is directly proportional to how recently the Wraith has fed." She glanced back at Gaul. "And he's ... fed pretty recently."

"I think there's gotta be more to it than that. Can Gaul move his fingers yet?" John asked.

Alice looked back to where Rodney was massaging Gaul's fingers, "Not exactly..." she sighed.

"Alright" he paused for a second, "then make sure Rodney's got a gun stuck in his hand, when he can move it."

"John?!" Alice whispered sharply.

"Just in case I don't make it back." his voice was heavy "Sheppard out."

Alice huffed, and stormed back to Gaul and Rodney. "Sheppard wants a gun in his hand as soon as he's able to move it."

Rodney gave Alice a shocked look, "what?"

"You heard me, give him Abrams' gun." Alice knelt down next to them and looked at Gaul in the eye, "look if this turns bad, I'm going to have to get you both out of here. And I'll need you both able to defend yourself."

"You want to get out there don't you?" Rodney's eyes were wide as he handed the gun to Gaul.

"My orders are to stay here with you." She repeated slowly.

"Oh come on Alice, you've worn a path into the floor. We should be helping him, we can't just let him die." Rodney gestured to where she'd been pacing earlier.

"Not until Dr Gaul is better, I can't leave either of you." Alice hesitated and started chewing her lip again, "no matter what it costs" her voice was barely a whisper at this point. Gaul's eyes were watching Rodney and Alice carefully.

* * *

Alice had returned to pacing up and down in the chamber. She tossed her head over to look at Rodney and Gaul whispering to each other, she sighed and walked over to them.

"We can't leave you here." she heard Rodney whisper as she came within earshot.

"Yes you can. What difference does it make? We all know I'm not gonna make it." Gaul sounded defeated.

"Stop being so dramatic. You're getting stronger by the minute." Rodney huffed.

"I've never felt so weak." Gaul wheezed

"Then stop talking." Rodney snapped back.

"I'm dying. I can feel it."

Alice walked purposefully over to him, "hey! we're going to get out of here." she looked sternly at Gaul "all of us."

Gaul just shook his head, unfazed by Alice's tone. "I'm not getting better, I'm getting worse. He left me with just enough life so that you'd have to watch me die."

"Listen to me. All you need is a good meal, a pot of tea, and to stop talking and ..." Alice's heart fluttered as Gaul's eyes closed. Rodney lent forward as well "Brendan!" Gaul's eyes snapped back open and he jerked his head up, making Alice and Rodney both jump. "I'm sorry."

"You said to stop talking." Alice just smirked and shook her head at Gaul's reply. Using the wall to push herself back up to stand.

* * *

It looked like Gaul had fallen into a light sleep, Alice had taken a seat down next to him. "You've got a pretty nasty bruise forming around your nose. Does it hurt at all?" Rodney pointed to the area around his own nose, scrunching his face up slightly.

Alice touched her nose gingerly with two fingers, it felt a bit swollen and it had been throbbing a bit. But with everything going on she'd pushed the pain to the back of her mind, "A little, but it's fine."

Rodney just nodded and went back to looking at the floor, then suddenly he whipped his head around jumping to his feet and pointed his gun towards the doorway. "You hear that?"

Alice tensed up, "No."

"I thought I heard something. Maybe there's another one hibernating." Rodney's was speaking fast, his breaths coming quickly.

"No." the answer this time came from Gaul.

Rodney took the lifesigns detector out, Alice had returned it to him not long before "It's been too long. I think the Major could be in trouble - and if he's in trouble, we're in trouble." he spoke mostly towards Alice.

"Rodney, Sheppard gave us direct orders to stay." Alice just shook her head, despite the fact she also wanted to be launching herself head first out the doorway to see John.

"Then go." Gaul wheezed lightly.

Rodney turned to face him "You figure you can move?"

"Not a chance. I'm not going anywhere." he looked down at his feet.

"OK. That's OK." Rodney's was panicking, clearly torn between wanting to leave.

"Rodney...we can't" Alice grabbed his arm and hissed into his ear.

"Go. both of you, just go. Save the day." Gaul gestured with his head towards the door.

"What I really wanna do is call him on the radio, but I'm afraid if he's hiding from the Wraith, I might inadvertently give away his position, and let's face it, what chance do we have against the Wraith if Sheppard can't take him out?" Rodney started rambling, Alice had to take her hands of her gun to grip Rodney's shoulders.

"Rodney, calm down. Sheppard's going to be fine!" Alice tightened her grip on him forcing him to look into her face.

Rodney's face was terrified "I was hoping to be strong enough, then I ..."

The sound of a gunshot interrupted Rodney, both Alice and him spun around in horror. Alice watched as the 9mm dropped to the ground, rushing forward she put her fingers on Gaul's neck, throwing her hands down when she felt nothing. "Dammit..."

"Oh, no!" Alice was covering her mouth with the back of her hand, Rodney was still stood where Alice had left him.

"Right, we need to go help John now!" She pulled the gun out of Gaul's hand, taking a second to close his eyelids. She quietly whispered 'I'm sorry' into his ear.

By the time Alice had gotten to her feet, Rodney was just coming to his senses. "Right, right. Let's go."

"Rodney, we're going to haul ass. Just try to keep up with me the best you can alright?" Alice grabbed her pack and clipped it onto her back, and started running back towards the opening of the ship, she could hear Rodney's pounding steps following her.

* * *

Alice was running as fast as she could, once out in the open she'd broken into a sprint, leaving Rodney behind. She was about two minutes away from the Jumper, she could already hear weapons fire. She climbed up one of the dunes overlooking the Jumper. She could see the Wraith lying on it's back, John was slumped behind a large rock.

She started working her way quietly down the other side of the dune, trying to keep the Jumper inbetween her and the Wraith. She ran up to the Jumper and put her back up against its side. She could just make out the sound of the Wraith shouting at John, "I've fed upon countless thousands of humans, Atlanteans, even a part of my own crew. And I will feed upon you before this day is done."

Then more gunfire rang out in the small clearing, Alice raised her gun and stepped out from behind the Jumper firing on the Wraith. It snarled and turned to face Alice, raising his 9mm.

"No! You need me to get off this planet. I'm the only one that can fly that ship." John had began firing and shouting at the Wraith trying to divert its attention away from Alice.

"I will use your dead hands to operate its controls." The Wraith spat back at John. Alice kept firing at him, but the Wraith lifted his gun and started firing towards Alice. She dived back behind the Jumper, but after a second she heard the distinct sound of the empty gun clicking.

She scrambled up in time to see John plunging his knife into the Wraith's hand, but then he was sent careening across the sand. Sat in a crouch she raised her gun and began firing, but she soon emptied her slip. It didn't seem to have any impact on him, the Wraith snarled and walked over to her. She reached up to grab another clip, but her vest pouch was empty.

More gunfire rang out as Rodney, began firing his pistol. The Wraith turned towards Rodney, and started limping towards him. "No more bullets!"

Alice got to her feet preparing herself to run at the Wraith, but John beat her to it. He engaged the Wraith, but was soon thrown back again towards Alice. Alice ran forward, skidding down onto her knees next to John. Just then, the glowing bugs came buzzing around the Wraith.

Alice sighed in relief as she saw him looking back up at her. He quickly glanced towards the Wraith then tilted his head down to his radio, "Ford, lock onto the biggest lifesign signals you can see and fire." she couldn't hear their reply, "That's an order, Lieutenant! Do it!"

John pushed himself up quickly "McKay, run!"

John grabbed Alice's vest strap and threw her down onto the ground, jumping down to cover her.

Alice felt a massive blast hit the ground, shaking the whole ground around them. "you okay Riles?" John brought his hands up to cup her face.

Alice blinked a couple of times, "Peachy" she couldn't help but smile.

John gave her his signature lopsided grin "McKay?" he shouted over his shoulder.

Alice just heard Rodney's voice call out "Still here!"

John spoke into his radio, Alice assumed to Ford coming for them in a rescue mission. "We can wait..." he looked back down at Alice "thanks Riles."

"Are you going to move any time?" Alice murmured, her face was dangerously close to his.

"I do quite like it here though." He smirked, but she felt the pressure of his weight vanish as he stood up.

Alice stood up and saw Rodney making their way over to him. "Thanks Rodney."

"Yeah, you too. You OK?" Rodney was squinting in the sunlight.

John gestured to a wound in his arm that Alice had just noticed, "Other than this and a few cracked ribs. What about Gaul?"

Alice shook her head solemnly.

They all started walking back to the half destroyed Jumper, "you think you can put this back together?" John winced.

"Sure, why not" Rodney shrugged and stepped inside to take a look.

"Alright, while he does that, let me have a look at you." Alice guided John to take lie down on the ramp. He grudgingly obeyed and let Alice pull up his shirt around his chest. "Geez, I think it's more than just cracked."

John groaned as Alice gently touched the bruised area. "Sorry..." she winced. "but you should take this as a lesson to not leave me behind next time."

John grinned "but then you wouldn't be here taking care of me."

Alice smiled, "you're ridiculous." She looked up quickly to see Rodney sat in the pilot's chair. She looked back down and brought her lips gently onto John's. "Really, don't do that to me again. Maybe you could organise a couple days of for us when we're back?"

Alice took a needle out of the medkit, and popped the cap off with her teeth. "Sounds like a plan." John managed to say, before Alice stuck the needle in his arm and watched his eyes slowly close.

* * *

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed the chapter!**

 **I will do my best to get the next one up as soon as possible.**

 **Have a great week :)**


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N Sorry for the delay in posting, life has been crazy at the moment.**

 **I hope you guys enjoy! Also sorry for any weird formatting i'm uploading this from the app. Once I have access to my laptop i'll try to fix any bugs -promise!**

 **Disclaimer: I don't own any characters or plots from Stargate Atlantis, with the exception of Alice Riley.**

To John's dismay, he'd had to remain in the infirmary for a week and a half after the Wraith incident on the desert planet. Alice had come by and kept him company everyday, along with Ford and Teyla. Rodney came most days.

The day he'd been let out of the infirmary he'd basically dragged Alice through Atlantis, acting like he'd never seen the city before. Then they'd gone for lunch with the team. "You're acting like a child, if you're not careful you're going to tear your stitches..." Rodney said condescendingly.

"Chill McKay, you sound like his mum or his wife." Ford chuckled and then proceeded to make kissing noises, gripping his hands together and making a lovey dovey expression.

Everyone laughed at Rodney, "no offense McKay, but you're not really my type." John snickered.

"Yeah, yeah. I couldn't think of anything worse." Rodney crossed his arms, with a smug expression on his face. "Not that you could ever get a wife."

"Hey, i had one...once" John looked slightly offended.

Everyone turned to look at John confused. Alice froze mid-chew "you were married?!" She managed to splutter out.

John held up his hands "I was, a few years ago. And it didn't last long." Alice relaxed slightly. Quickly looking around the table to see if anyone had thought her outburst was out of place.

"Really sir? I didn't picture you as the marriage kind." Ford had a massive grin on his face, like he knew he'd just found a sore spot he could use to his advantage later.

John just glared at him "yeah, yeah. Like i said it didn't really last long." He flicked his eyes over to Alice, she shook her head but gave him a small smile.

They were both adults, it wasn't like she thought she was John's first girlfriend. They'd not really delved much into their relationship history. They'd really avoided any conversations about the future or similar.

It was about , Alice sat cross legged on her bed. She had her datapad on her lap, she'd been thinking about John and their current situation. She'd never really given much thought to marriage, she definitely didn't feel ready for it anytime soon though. It was partially the reason her last relationship ended, he'd been looking for something more than she could give at this time. Especially considering what she did for a living.

She huffed, grabbing her shoes from the end of the bed and shoving her feet into them. Silently she walked out of her room and started heading towards John's room, she pulled out the lifesigns detector she'd stuffed into her jacket pocket. Looking down to see if there were any dots in her way. Seeing that it was clear she picked up her pace.

When she arrived at John's door, she paused biting down on her bottom lip. She stamped on the ground and then swiped her hand over the door chime. She put her hands on top of her head and started turning on the stop, feeling nervous and agitated.

She heard the door open, swivelling around she quickly stepped inside, moving past John. She'd walked almost to the other side of the room, when she dragged her hands back to her neck. "John, do you ever want to get married again?"

What felt like minutes of silence engulfed them, Alice had begun chewing on her lip again. "Well...that was unexpected." John finally said. "Um...look Riles. This is because of what happened at lunch right?" John raised his eyebrow.

Alice just nodded meekly. John sighed and ran his hand over his hair, ruffling his already disheveled hair. "Riles..." he paused, he looked like he was trying to taste the words he was about to say "not that i think we're at that point. But... well" He stared awkwardly at her.

He sighed and sat down heavily on the edge of his bed, "I mean...I haven't really given it much thought." John stood up and walked over to her, "we don't need to think about this, you're worrying over nothing." John pulled her hand off her neck and clasped it between his.

Alice took in a deep breath, stepping forward and placing her head into his neck. "Okay" she murmured.

Alice rolled over in bed, expecting to feel John's body against her, but all she felt were cold sheets. Confused she propped herself up on her elbow, and looked around the room. She saw John's silhouette standing against the window. "You okay?" Alice's voice was raspy and full of sleep.

"Sorry darling, I didn't mean to wake you." John turned and walked back over to the bed, sitting down and brushing a loose strand of her hair back out of her face.

"What's wrong?" she watched him intently, his hazel eyes looked distracted and saddened.

"It's nothing, go back to sleep." he lent in and kissed her forehead.

She frowned slightly, "there's something you're not telling me."

John sighed, and touched his forehead "really it's nothing, come on." He pulled back and grabbed the edge of the blanket. Alice shuffled back and let him climb back into the bed.

Alice looked at him skeptically, John stroked her cheek and brought his lips down on hers. "Okay, but you owe me for waking me up" she giggled as John started kissing all over her face.

Alice stood in the group of scientists gathered around, she was on protection detail helping them check the structural integrity of the flooded areas. They'd been down here all day, she could tell Ford was starting to go stir crazy.

The last of the teams was joining up with the group, Rodney was on the radio to Elizabeth. Alice had past most of the time daydreaming about her time with John, she was trying hard to keep the smile off her face. "I can't take another moment down here, hey what's up with you?" Ford had wandered over to Alice.

"Huh?" Alice hadn't been paying attention to him "what did you say?"

Ford laughed "I know that look, you're seeing someone aren't you?"

Alice's eyes widened "wh...what are you talking about?"

At this point Rodney turned around and addressed the group "Alright, you clowns, listen up! I don't often get a chance to say this, so savour it: good work, boys and girls! Let's go home."

"Wait, wait, wait. We're missing Johnson and Wagner." Radek stepped up to his side.

Rodney sighed irritability "Wagner, Johnson, what's your position?"

"We need back-up! They're coming at us!" a terrified voice sounded over the radio. Alice and Ford jumped up and moved over to Rodney.

"Where are they?" Ford said

Radek looked at his life signs detector and pointed down the hall "Down this corridor."

"We're on our way." Rodney replied

"Alright everyone, we're moving out, Ford take our six." Alice raised her weapon and followed Radek down the hall.

Alice saw two figures lying on the floor.

"Johnson, Johnson, you OK?" Rodney shouted, Alice held up her hand.

"Ford!" check him, i'll check her.

"Riley. McKay. He's dead!"

"Johnson, what happened here?" Rodney stepped forward.

Johnson was crying, without looking up said "They got him." Alice was knelt next to her.

"Who got him?" Rodney asked.

Johnson looked up and a look of terror washed over her, she scrambled up to her feet and started to back away.

"Calm down. There's nothing here."

She continued backing away, and was now flailing at the air. Alice moved forward trying to restrain her "you're alright. Johnson calm down."

"Can't you see them? They're everywhere!"

Alice finally managed to get hold of her, she turned to Radek "Help me hold her. Rodney call the doc."

"Beckett, I need a medical team down here, stat!" she heard Rodney yell down his radio.

Johnson was still struggling against Zelenka and Alice. After a moment, her legs started to buckle under her. Alice started lowering her to the ground, she clutched at her head, then screamed in anguish. Alice looked at her bewildered, then Johnson's body went limp. "Johnson!" Alice felt around her neck for a pulse, but there was nothing. "She'd gone."

Alice helped Radek and one of the other scientists cover up the two bodies, whilst Rodney reported into Beckett.

"So, wait, what, we're just gonna stay here?" One of the male scientists complained. Alice didn't recognise him.

"That's the plan, yes." Rodney snapped back at him.

"May I say it's a terrible one?"

"No, you may not." Alice moved forward, about to interject.

"I think we should get the hell out of here." the scientist looked panicked.

"We all need to calm down, we just need to wait for Doctor Beckett to come check us out."

"If it is an airborne agent, we may already be infected. Heading back to the city would only endanger the rest of the population." Alice looked at Radek out of the side of her eyes. She'd been trying to diffuse the situation.

"What if we're not infected yet?" the scientist said.

"Well, there's no way of knowing." Rodney whined back

"But I feel fine. I feel perfectly fine!"

"We just need to..." Alice started talking, Rodney had such a good way with people she thought sarcastically.

"End of discussion. Peterson, we're staying here." Rodney interrupted. "Actually -- wait a second ..." He snapped his fingers several times "Everyone follow me."

Alice bit her lip and sighed, she'd tried to reach John on his radio but there was no answer. Having no choice she followed after Rodney's team, she caught up to them just as Rodney found a partially open doorway.

"Right, everybody stay here. Ford, Alice..." Rodney gestured to the two of them.

"You just told me to ..." Ford had already began to turn away

"Everybody except you two stay here. You think I'm going in there by myself? Uh-uh." Alice sighed as Rodney stepped away from the entrance. Alice squeezed through the doorway first and checked the lab. She nodded back at Rodney, who squeezed through behind her. "Don't touch anything." Alice looked over at the main table of the lab, there were broken beakers on the table "This is not good."

Alice's radio crackled "Riles, what's the situation."

"Sheppard, we've just found an old laboratory. This could be the source of the disease." Alice stepped away from the other to talk into her radio.

"Okay, just..." Alice heard him pause, she knew what he wanted to say, but you this wasn't a secure channel.

"We will, we'll report in soon. Riley out."

Alice, walked back over just as Rodney seemed to have some epiphany. "Weir, it's McKay."

"Go ahead, Rodney." Alice looked questioningly to Ford, who just shrugged.

"Where's Beckett?"

"He's on his way. It takes some time to load a whole medical team into suits."

"Well, we seem to have stumbled across something that I find ... a little troubling." Rodney was pacing now.

"That's not what I wanted to hear."

"I think we may have found an Ancient viral lab. Wagner and Johnson must have been exposed here. Now, it'll take weeks to sift through all this data, and there's no way of knowing whether the Ancients were just studying the viruses or actively creating them." Alice felt a strange knot forming in her chest. "Either way, the storm's done quite a number on this place and I've got ..." behind Rodney, one of the female scientists started whimpering in terror, staring into the distance. Rodney turned to face her "Dumais. Dumais?" She'd held up her hands, trying to protect herself. "Dumais!"

She ran towards Peterson "It's all over you!"

"Dumais? Dumais!" Alice and Ford moved to pull her off him

"They're all over you! They're all over you!"

Rodney and Radek came over to help. Dumais screams and clutches her head, just like Johnson did, then grunts and starts to convulse. Alice grabbed Dumais and and held her hands by her side "calm down, you're safe. There's nothing here." She tried to keep her voice low and calming.

Dumais starting grunting in pain and screaming in agony. Alice, with the help of Rodney and Radek, lowered Dumais onto the floor. Blood was coming out her nose, mouth and ears. Alice checked her pulse. She released Dumais and shook her head.

"Tell Beckett to pick up the pace -- I've just lost another member of my team!" Rodney's voice quivered.

"Where's Peterson?" Alice looked up from Dumais' body to Ford.

"Sheppard, this is Riley, come in." Alice tapped her radio.

"I'm here, what's going on." Sheppard replied

"One of the scientists, Peterson, he's trying to make his way back to the city. We think he's infected."

Sheppard paused "Ok, we'll handle this. Are you, Ford or McKay showing any symptoms?"

"No" Alice sighed "but we think it's only a matter of time. Carson just arrived, we'll keep you updated."

Alice held out her arm as a nurse plunged the needle into her skin. Alice hissed and looked away, she'd never been good with needles, give her a Wraith attack any day. Carson looked up from where he was checking Rodney and gave her a sympathetic look, he knew how much she hated these things. "Well, you both seem perfectly fine."

"Well, Dumais seemed fine, right up to the point where she wasn't." Rodney pulled his sleeve back down his arm.

"I've had them set up a small field station down the corridor. We've already started the autopsies." Alice thanked the nurse and rubbed her arm as she walked over to them.

"Any ideas?" Rodney asked, Alice could tell he was scared.

"From what we can tell, you're all in good shape, so I wouldn't jump to any conclusions." Carson tried to reassure him, but gave Alice a side look.

"Stop trying to convince me I'm fine, Carson. I think we all know better." Rodney snapped irritably at him.

"I was just trying to ..."

"Are we done here?" Rodney turned away from both of them, looking over to his laptop and the rest of his team. Beckett murmured a quiet yes.

Rodney jumped up from the table and moved past both of them "I'm gonna see what I can get from the database. Let me know what the autopsy shows up."

"Alright" Beckett sighed.

Alice glanced At Carson, opening her mouth to say something before Rodney turned back "Oh -- and tell your pathologists to start with their heads."

"Don't mind him, he's just scared" Alice put her hand on Carson's shoulder. He looked at her through his hazmat suit.

"Thanks love, once we get your blood work back we should hopefully have a better idea of what we're dealing with." Carson took in a deep breath, "just make sure you let me or one of my team know if you start seeing anything."

Alice nodded and smiled "You'll solve this doc. Just let me know if there is anything my team or I can do." Alice tapped her P90 gently.

* * *

Alice was sat in the lab looking over one of the laptops, aside from Rodney she had the best understanding of the Ancient language and her science background was helping her skim through the entries. Rodney and Alice were trying to find any references to the types of specimens kept here, so far they'd not made much progress. Typically, all the logs were incredibly long and detailed and proving difficult to skim through. She flicked back to the main screen and looked through the entry logs, so far they'd been going through them systematically, but Alice was running out of patience.

A strange noise made Alice sit up and look behind her, a black mist was hovering near hear. Alice closed her eyes and forced herself to look back at the screen. This was the third or fourth time she'd seen something. Her first priority was looking through these reports. Alice looked at the list of logs, sighing she scrolled down and picked one at random, and quickly began translating the content.

"Rodney!" Alice reached out and grasped his arm, "I think this is it" she turned her laptop around to show him her screen and pointed.

Rodney squinted and read the paragraph she was pointing at, his eyes went wide "Carson, we need you back in here."

"I've" Rodney started once Carson arrived back in the room, Alice cleared her throat at Rodney, "we've not read the entire entries -- it's incredibly long, but this looks like our guy. Six hour hibernation, reoccurring visions, and best of all, so I've left it til last, brain haemorrhage, or aneurysms."

"That definitely sounds familiar." Beckett looked at the image on the screen.

"Maybe there's something in here about how to ..." He trailed off and looked up, a scared look on his face. Alice put her hand on his shoulder and said his name.

Rodney let out a scream and then ducked down shielding himself. Everybody in the room turned around to look at him. Rodney straightened up again, looked around the room. "Sorry." he whimpered.

"Rodney?" Alice and Carson said softly. Alice knew what he was going to say.

"I've been seeing things."

"Since when?" Carson's face was grim.

"About an hour." he said hesitantly "First you think it's just your eyes playing tricks on you but eventually ..."

Alice looked down at the ground, another voice spoke up from behind her "... they get worse."

"You too?" Rodney asked.

"They come right at you."

"It's like a ghost." Rodney agreed with him

Alice looked up now and saw Radek had come over to join them "I've been going over the survey schedule. Johnson and Wagner started off on their own, but then crossed paths with Dumais an hour later." He had his datapad out in from of him, looking at a list.

"Dumais died almost exactly an hour after Johnson and Wagner. Who did they meet up with next?" Carson's voice was tense.

Radek paused, "My greater concern is who Dumais met up with next."

"Dumais? Who'd she run into?"

Alice took in a breath, looking at Radek waiting for him to confirm her fears. He lowered his head for a moment and then looked up at Rodney and Alice.

"Me. She ran into Hays ... and me. We're next." Alice felt a feeling of cold dread wash through her body.

"Then 20 minutes later, you met up with me." Alice whispered, both Carson and Rodney stared at her with troubled looks.

Carson looked at Alice, "have you seen these visions yet?"

Alice nodded "yes, the first one was about 35 minutes ago." looking down at her watch.

Carson sighed "I thought i told both of you to tell me if you started seeing anything."

Alice bit her lip and smiled apologetically at Carson "I need to step out for a sec, don't worry I won't run off" she held her hands up as Carson looked like he was about to protest. "I just need to report into Sheppard."

Carson nodded and Rodney whimpered and went back to his laptop.

"Major, come in." Alice tapped her radio, waiting for John's reply.

"Go ahead" his voice was tense and Alice could tell he was frustrated.

"How's it going with Peterson?"

She heard him grunt "He got away into the city, and now the city's gone into a full medical lockdown."Alice was surprised, she remembered Rodney mentioning something about Atlantis' defense mechanisms against disease outbreaks, but she'd been mostly tuning him out. "How's it going down there? You feeling okay?"

Alice breathed in deeply "John, both Rodney and I have been infected. If we're right about how this disease operates..."Alice's throat tightened up "then we've only got about five hours."

"We'll figure this out, Beckett will find a cure." there was a pause, Alice didn't know what to say, what do you say in this situation. They couldn't say what they really wanted to, anyone could be listening in "I can't lose you..." his voice was soft now, "either of you..." he added quickly onto the end.

"Rodney is strong, and we're still looking through the notes. If there is something there we'll find it." Alice paused "Take care Sheppard. Riley out." she switched her radio off, not waiting to hear if he said anything else.

Alice took a few moments lone in the hall, letting herself regain control of her emotions. If she started showing cracks, then it could send everyone into chaos. When she walked back in, Ford looked at her in concern. "You okay?"

Alice just nodded "what about you? seeing anything?" Ford shook his head.

"The doc needs to get a move on."

"He's working as hard as he can, look check in with the guys, I'm going to see if i can help Rodney anymore." Alice put her hand on his shoulder "we'll get through this!" Ford didn't look convinced but went to carry out her orders.

Alice sat down and started reading through the logs again, trying to ignore the various noises, not trusting herself to look up. Another couple of hours went past and they hadn't learnt much more.

"No! Noooo!" Alice looked up to see Hays slapping himself, fighting with the invisible visions. A couple of the nurses next to him tried to pull his hands back and restrain him. The entire room had gone silent and was watching Hays struggle.

"Hey! It's not real, remember? It's not real!" Rodney stood up and shouted at him

"No! No!" he continued to flail and struggle against the nurses, the heart monitor he was attached too started beeping wildly "They're coming right at us! Can't you see them?!"

Alice was frozen to the spot, she could look away as Hays collapsed onto the floor. Carson rushed over to help the other nurses. She barely heard Carson and Rodney bickering, when the machine let out a single long tone.

She watched as Carson started to administer CPR as the nurse put an airbag over Hays' nose and mouth. Tears were starting to well in her eyes, she tried to swallowed but her throat was too dry and constricted.

"Stop! It's not his heart. Just ..." Rodney shouted at Carson "...stop." his voice was shaking in fear.

Alice looked at Rodney, Ford had come to stand next to her, watching him carefully. "How are you feeling?"

"I'm ... I'm ... Listen, I have a sister. We're not close -- I don't even know how you'd find her." Rodney started babbling.

"Don't talk like that." Ford interrupted.

"She's the only family I really have, so someone should tell her what happened. And, uh, make it sound good, OK?" he paused for a second, no one made a move to speak "Tell her I ... I died saving someone ... kids! I died saving kids -- a bunch of them. Nelenka ..." Alice couldn't help but smile slightly as Rodney continued to get Radek's name wrong "I've got some theories on looping the power on the Gate to charge a dummy ZedPM. It probably won't work, but-but you should have someone look at it cos it might lead somewhere else."

"We'll look at it together." Radek murmured softly.

"Look, you seriously have to stop interrupting my last thoughts." Alice could feel her eyes watering as she watched Rodney shout at them, his face screwed up in fear "I mean, this is important stuff you need to hear." he looked around the room, everyone had their eyes on him. "Now -- if you're here for more than a year, I've left some notes on how to roll blackouts to effectively maintain your power requirements and-and, oh, tell everyone that I was, I was inches away from a Theory of Unification but uh, uh, the notes, they were lost when I died saving the ..." Rodney trailed off

"... kids." Radek finished for him.

"Yeah." Rodney looked around the room, turning slowly. Alice held her breath waiting for him to start screaming like Hays. "OK. I should be dead now."

Carson slowly stepped up to him, "You ran into Dumais at the same time?"

"Exactly the same time."

"Then, yes, you should be dead." Carson stated bluntly

Rodney swung his head around the room "Oh, God!" He stopped his gaze on where Alice, Ford and Radek were standing "I'm still here!" a huge smile appeared on his face. Alice was dumbfounded.

"Yes you are." Ford mirrored Alice's expression.

"Interesting." Radek

"Interesting?!" Rodney shrieked

"Don't take this the wrong way, but ..." Carson trailed off.

"... why?" Alice finished for him.

"Well, I don't care." he turned to Carson, he was beaming in relief "I mean, I really don't care!"

Carson just smiled and patted him on the arm.

* * *

Alice had her hands covering her mouth, her time had come and gone and as Rodney predicted, she was completely unaffected due to her having the gene. She was stretched out leaning across the desk, waiting in anticipation for John to reach the EMP generator.

"OK. Here we go." Rodney turned to Carson and Alice.

"Wait! How're we gonna know if it works?" Elizabeth's voice sounded in their ears.

"Well, Sheppard's dialling up the most powerful pulse the generator can manage. It probably won't make it all the way down here but it should affect most of the central tower. I imagine once it wipes out the virus, the city should return control of it to you and end the lockdown." Rodney explained

"It won't make it here?" Ford looked at Rodney questioningly.

"If the pulse works, it will simply be a matter of walking you down to my lab, sitting you down in front of the EMP and repeating the process." Rodney's patience was wearing thin, "Major?"

"It's working." Alice heard John's voice sound in her ear, "When should I hit the discharge button?"

"OK -- there should be a red overload light." Rodney was gesturing wildly

"Is this really going to work?" Ford lent over and whispered in Alice's ear.

Alice dragged her hands down her face, "I hope so..." John was ready to activate the device, "moment of truth."

Alice straightened up, and waited. The silence was deafening, Ford was shifting his gaze from Rodney to Alice, fidgeting on the spot.

Rodney tapped his fingers nervously on the table, 20 seconds must have gone by, by now. He tapped his earpiece "Anything?"

"Is it possible it might take some time?" Elizabeth asked through the radio.

Rodney sighed and looked despairingly at Alice and Ford "Doubtful... Are you still locked out of the Ancient mainframe?"

Alice squeezed her hands together, "Got any other ideas?" Elizabeth's disappointed voice questioned.

Ford checks his watch anxiously, "Twenty-nine minutes."

Alice gave Ford a sympathetic look, she knew she was out of the woods, she had the ancient gene. But Ford and Radek were next, and neither of them had the gene to protect them. Not to mention the other people in Atlantis who had no doubt been infected by now. Alice had taken her earpiece out to rub her face.

Rodney started clicking his fingers at Alice, John and Rodney must have had another idea. She picked up it back up and put it back in, looking curiously at Ford.

"The Major is right" She could hear Rodney speaking next to her and into her ear again "the only way to create an EMP strong enough to wipe these little guys out is to ..."

"... to detonate a nuclear explosion in the atmosphere! Yes, I heard the first time!" Elizabeth sounded exasperated. Alice's eyes widened, they couldn't be serious.

"I know it sounds severe but if the major was able to overload a naquadah generator twenty miles above the city, it would be perfectly safe from a radiological standpoint and the ensuing blast would be capable of creating a devastating electromagnetic shockwave -- definitely enough to knock this virus out." Rodney chattered quickly.

"It's worth the risk." John sounded tense.

Elizabeth reluctantly agreed, "OK. You have a go."

Alice tapped her radio "Major, you won't have much time to get out of the way."

"I know Riles. Wish me luck." Alice wanted to scream down the radio for him not to go, but she knew better than that. And this was something she would do without hesitation if their positions were reversed.

"Good luck Major" she whispered back to him.

"Fifteen seconds ... Detonation in ten, nine, eight, seven, six ..." everyone was listening to Grodin counting down. Carson reached out and grabbed Alice's hand.

Rodney was frozen in place, and it sounded like Ford had stopped breathing. They all waited, down in the lab there were no windows to see what would have been a bright explosion in the lower atmosphere.

"Major Sheppard, come in." Alice listened as Elizabeth tried to hail John. "This is Weir -- please respond." Carson squeezed Alice's hand a little tighter, as Alice's breaths started coming in short gasps. "Major, do you read me?"

"This is Sheppard. I've cleared the blast -- I'm returning home." The room collectively sighed, Ford started jumping up and down excitedly.

"I'm glad to hear it, Major."

"Did it work?" John asked the question they were all waiting to hear.

"We're about to find out."

After a couple seconds of silence, Rodney twitched anxiously "You should know almost right away. The pulse only lasts a couple of microseconds and then ..."

"The city's already ahead of us, Rodney. You have a green light to return." Rodney sighed, the room cheered. Radek shook hands with Rodney, whilst Carson enthusiastically hugged Ford and Alice.

"Alright, let's get this party moving people." Alice raised her voice above the cheers, smiling at Carson and Ford and started gathering up the equipment.

* * *

Alice tapped her fingers on one of the Ancient control panels, Grodin gave her an annoyed side glance. Giving him an apologetic look, she put her hands behind her back and began pacing. She was waiting for Rodney, John and Carson to finish up their briefing with Elizabeth. Finally she heard footsteps coming across the bridge.

"Major" Alice stood at attention.

"At ease Riles" John waved his hand at her, looking slightly amused at her formal manner. "I'll catch up with you in a bit McKay." Rodney hadn't even noticed Alice standing there, his head was down in his datapad. He mumbled an okay and wandered off towards his lab.

"Could I have a moment?" Alice made sure her voice sounded professional.

John had a smirk on his face, "Sure Riles, walk with me."

Alice walked after him, "are you okay?"

"Me? I wasn't the one infected with tiny machines" he raised his eyebrows at her, picking up his pace slightly.

Alice wasn't sure where they were heading "and i wasn't the one who surfed a nuclear shockwave." She shot back at him quickly.

John looked behind him and then took a hard right and into small alcove, as Alice followed he grabbed her by the shoulders and pinned her against the wall, crashing his lips down on hers. Alice left out a muffled gasp of surprise, but quickly melted into John's arms. "I'm really glad you're okay."

Alice laughed and rested her head on John's shoulder breathing in his cologne, "so am I... Do you think we could go a week without someone being in mortal peril?" she joked.

She felt John's chest vibrate with laughter "Isn't that what you signed up for? Danger and adventure in the Pegasus Galaxy! No wonder you're so attracted to me."

Alice smiled up at him, briefly she saw a sad look pass over John's face. But it was so quick she wasn't sure she'd even seen it. "This wasn't exactly what I had in mind when I signed up." Alice kissed him lightly.

"Come on, let's get out of here and celebrate another day we've survived the Pegasus Galaxy." John gave her his signature lopsided grin and started dragging her back towards his room.


	7. Chapter 7

**A/N hey guys! Sorry for the delay in getting this chapter up, life has been super hectic.**

 **If you've never heard of the game predator (we used to play this a lot at school) then here's a link to read up on the basic rules -**

 **Disclaimer: I do not own any characters or plots from Stargate Atlantis, with the exception of aalice Riley.**

 **Happy reading!**

Alice was sitting in the cockpit in one of the Jumpers, Rodney had asked her to look over some of the damaged drivepods and see if she could get them operational. She was slowly becoming an expert in all things Ancient spaceships. Alice rested her head on her palm, intently focused on the screen in front of her. She felt the hairs on her neck prickle, she raised her head and looked behind her, she jumped a little when she saw John leaning against the cargo bulkhead.

"I didn't scare you, did I?" John chuckled.

"Geez John!" Alice smiled, leaning back in her chair and put her hand over her heart "How long have you been standing there?"

"Not long. I was just in the neighbourhood and thought i'd stop by." John pushed himself off the bulkhead and moved towards her "I thought you might need a break" John winked and pulled out a paper bag.

Alice laughed and smiled "Major Sheppard, is this a date?" She said jokingly.

John took another step forward "well, if you need more convincing?" John reached into the bag and pulled a jello cup "y'know this might be one of the last jello cups in the entire galaxy..." John moved up and lent forward on the control panel, holding the cup out in front of him.

Alice lent forward smiling "Oh is it now? well I guess I can't say no to that." Her face was close to John's, he closed the gap and kissed her softly.

"Come on, I've got a whole lunch packed. And you really do need a break." John took a couple of steps back towards the cargo area and reached in to take the rest of the items out of the paper bag.

Alice just shook her head, "John...if anyone saw us..."

John's face fell a little as Alice hesitated in her seat, "come on Riles, let's just pretend we're a normal couple...just for lunch, and jello?"

Alice smiled again, and laughed softly. Giving in and standing up to follow John into the cargo area of the Jumper. She couldn't help the small sense of panic that flared up in her chest when he said 'couple', she pushed the thoughts to the back of her mind.

Alice had woken up alone that morning, but she had a smile on her face. John had left a note on her datapad saying he'd dashed off early to get back to his room, so he could get ready for their upcoming mission. She was walking down the hall towards the armoury.

"Another day, another planet to explore!" Ford's chirpy voice echoed through the hall. Alice opened the door to see him strapping on his thigh holster.

Rodney looked miserable, as he normally did when they had an early call time. Alice laughed and started grabbing her gear from the lockers. John was already suited up. Alice smirked and winked at him when she caught him looking over at her. Luckily, Ford and Rodney were too busy putting their gear on to notice.

"Teyla's already in the gateroom, so grab your stuff and be there in five" John stuffed a few extra P90 clips in his vest and then pointed at Alice and winked, "that means you Riles!"

Alice just stuck her tongue out at him, he sighed and headed out to the gateroom. "I don't know how you get away with that, i swear he'd bite my head off if i did half the things you did." Ford crossed his arms and looked at her.

"Come on Lieutenant, let's get moving. We wouldn't want to keep the Major waiting." Alice threw a stunner at him and raced out the room behind John.

They'd just landed the Jumper back in the bay, Ford and Alice were sat in the cargo area. John had wanted to give Chaya a front row seat. She stood up quickly and reaching over Ford's head slapped the door release. Ford gave her a cautious look, but before he could say anything Alice took off out of the bay.

She'd never been the jealous type, but she couldn't stand watching John drool over the alien priestess.

"Aly! hey you okay?" Ford ran up behind her.

Alice just shook her head "I'm fine Ford, I just don't think we should be trusting her so easily. We know nothing about her, and the Major is just willing to show her everything."

Ford just shrugged "the Major knows what he's doing, just trust him."

Alice just scoffed "Come on Ford, you saw him. I don't exactly think he's thinking with the right head." Without waiting for a reply she slipped into the armoury and unceremoniously threw her equipment down into her locker. Rodney walked in behind her, he looked similarly unhappy.

"Can you believe him!?" Rodney threw his arms around animatedly "she's obviously hiding something from us!"

Alice sighed "you're preaching to the choir Rodney."

Rodney wheeled around at her surprised, "what... so i'm not the only one?!"

Alice nodded, "I don't trust her."

Rodney had just unclipped his vest and sat down on one of the benches directly across from her. "Then I need your help to figure out what she's hiding."

Alice was sat in Rodney's lab looking over the data she'd pulled out from the Puddle Jumpers scanners, she was looking for anything that could help them figure out what Chaya was hiding. Rodney had left to go brief Elizabeth on their progress so far, Alice was avoiding leaving the lab. John was acting as a guide for Chaya, and she didn't really feel like seeing him right now, she was feeling ashamed and embarrassed about how she'd acted on the planet.

"Alice, can you meet us in the infirmary? Carson might have something..." Rodney's voice came through her ear piece.

"I'll be right there" Alice locked down her laptop, shutting it down and headed out towards the infirmary.

"Blood work shows no viral, bacterial, or parasitic infections. MRI reveals no tumors or cancers; no heart defects of any kind. Blood pressure 130 over 70; total cholesterol 107. She's in perfect health." Carson pointed at the different scans and charts pulled up on his screen. Alice bit down on the inside of cheek, maybe she was just being jealous and paranoid. She groaned slightly, feeling even worse than before about her behaviour.

"I'm happy for her. Why did we need to see this?" Elizabeth looked at Carson confused.

"Because, Doctor, she's too healthy." Carson stated

"What does that mean?" Alice put her hands on her hips and squinted back at the screen, hoping whatever she was missing would jump out at her.

"There's no trace of any diseases or congenital conditions that you typically find in pre-technological societies. No rickets no fungi, STDs…" Alice cringed, and looked back at Carson wrinkling up her nose.

"Perfect health?" Elizabeth questioned again.

"Aye, and from what she told me, this may be the norm among her people." Carson lent back in his chair and crossed his arms.

"But she is human?" Rodney asked suspiciously.

"Oh, without a doubt." Elizabeth, Rodney and Alice all shared a look. Alice saw her confusion reflected back in their faces.

"So, that's a problem because?"

"Because human life, quite simply, Dr. Weir, is more fragile than that. I don't care what galaxy we're in. It's unnatural." Alice saw a smug look cross Rodney's face, Elizabeth just looked concerned.

"Riles!" Alice was on her way down from the control room back to Rodney's lab. She'd been helping Grodin decipher some Ancient text on the new machine Chaya had activated.

Alice took a deep breath and brought her shoulders down into a taunt position. "Yes, Major?" she said politely.

John gave her a confused look "We're just about to go into a briefing with Chaya, to try negotiate a deal. I thought you might like to join us and then grab some lunch?"

"No thanks, i've got a lot of stuff I'm trying to translate at the moment, so I'm probably going to skip lunch." Alice pivoted quickly and headed down the stairs out of the gateroom.

She was muttering to herself as she walked back into Rodney's lab, Radek was there now too. He gave her a weird look, then just shrugged and continued looking at his laptop.

"Aly, good you're here. Any idea what that control panel is?" Rodney walked in behind her.

"I've got the data here, I'm just about to go through it. I'll let you know when i have something." Rodney nodded at her, he looked frustrated. "You okay Rodney?"

"We shouldn't be giving her access to our database, and letting Sheppard keep an eye on her. It's just asking for trouble, I mean you can see the drool coming out of his mouth from a mile away." Alice bit down on her lip again, keeping her mouth shut. it was one thing thinking she saw John flirting with Chaya, but is was another to know someone else could see it too.

Alice put her head down onto her desk, she felt like a ridiculous teenager spying on her boyfriend. This was exactly why she hated getting so involved with people. She just hadn't realised how strongly she'd started to feel towards John, and if she was being honest with herself it scared her.

"You want to send her back?" Alice and Rodney were walking after Elizabeth as she headed towards the control room.

"All I know is she's not who she's pretending to be." Rodney was arguing, Alice hadn't said anything yet.

"And you know this because…?"

"What, I'm not allowed to have intuition?" Rodney snarked back.

"You? No." Elizabeth gave Rodney an amused look. "But what about you Captain, do you feel the same?"

Alice had been chewing on the inside of her mouth again, "I'm not sure" she said truthfully, "but, something's definitely wacky here. And I'm not sure if we should be trusting her so much."

Elizabeth eyed her, considering what she'd just said "I asked Major Sheppard to keep an eye on her."

Rodney scoffed "Which is like asking the fox to guard the henhouse."

"What?" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow at him.

"Look we should give her a one-way ticket back home." Rodney's voice was getting slightly louder and his expression was defiant.

"There is obviously something very…different about her, yes, but that doesn't necessarily make her a threat." Elizabeth tried to reason.

"It doesn't rule it out, either." Alice and Rodney spoke at the same time.

"Then, for the moment, I think what we could gain by securing a treaty is worth the risk of her being here." Elizabeth's voice told Alice that the conversation was over.

"Fine." Rodney gave Elizabeth a frustrated look then turned to head back to his lab. Alice gave Elizabeth an apologetic look and then followed after Rodney.

Alice slumped in her chair in the mess hall, she was still avoiding John and Chaya. She'd stuck herself in Rodney's lab poring over the Ancient data from the new console until her growling stomach had forced her out. She'd sat down in the corner of the mess hall on an empty table, she wasn't exactly feeling overly chatty.

"A picnic, unbelievable..." Rodney hissed under his breath, he plonked his tray down across from Alice and dropped forcefully into the chair.

"What are you mumbling about?" Alice was using her spoon to push around her mashed potato - at least that what she thought it could be - on her plate.

"Kirk.." Rodney replied, Alice looked at Rodney blankly, "Sheppard, he's taking Chaya on a picnic out by the south docks. i just ran into Stackhouse who'd seen them walking out together."

Alice threw her spoon down into the mush, and shook her head disbelievingly. "The last thing we need is for the ranking military officer to be compromised! We still don't even know who or what she is" Rodney had shoved a mouthful of food in his mouth as he spoke. He was getting more agitated as he went.

Alice pushed her tongue against the back of her teeth. She'd hated feeling like this, she tried to stay reasonable, thinking over and over in her head that he was just being diplomatic, not romantic. Alice and Rodney sat in silence while they finished the rest of their meal, both quietly brooding.

They both threw their trays into the bin and headed back to their rooms. "Night Rodney." Alice would've slammed the door if she could. She took off her shirt and threw it onto the floor, she felt ridiculous, acting irrational and emotional.

Alice was sat in bed, she was too frustrated to sleep. She threw her hands down on the bed and grunted, getting to her feet she shrugged on her uniform jacket over her tank top and shorts and slipped on her boots. If she couldn't sleep then she would go see if she could figure out this console. At least that would keep her mind busy.

"Evening stroll?" Alice jumped slightly as Rodney's voice came up behind her.

"Geez, you scared me." Alice placed her hand over her heart. "I..um..couldn't sleep. I thought i'd take another look at the data we collected for that console." Rodney smiled and nodded.

"Same, I'm just on my way to the lab now. After you." Rodney swung his arm out in front of him gesturing for her to take the lead. Alice couldn't help but laugh at his attempt of chivalry.

They were chatting quietly when another figure appeared, walking in front of them. Alice wanted to steal away and hide, John was the last person she wanted to see right now. She felt silly for hiding away from him all day, and she knew he wouldn't be happy with her.

"Major." Rodney called out. Alice closed her eyes and screwed up her face, silently cursing Rodney.

"Rodney. What are you doing up so late?" John jumped slightly and turned to face them, only then realising that Alice was there.

"I was just, uh… neither of us could sleep, so we were going back up to the my lab to do a little research. What about you?" Rodney looked between Alice and John awkwardly.

"Oh, no thanks." John looked uncomfortable.

"No, I mean, what were you doing up so late?" Rodney crossed his arms over his chest, probing him further.

"I'm always up late, Rodney." Alice rolled her eyes, usually it was because he was off seeing her. Obviously that wasn't true of tonight.

"A word of caution" Rodney's voice turned hard, and he took a step forward "—the whole Captain Kirk routine is problematic, to say the least, let alone morally dubious."

"What routine?" John said defensively, quickly glancing at Alice's face.

"The romancing the alien priestess. It's very 1967 of you. Actually, I'm surprised—" Rodney's voice was agitated and harsh.

"If and when" John cut him off "anything I do becomes your business…"

"It becomes my business, Major, when an alien woman who is clearly not who she claims to be has the ranking military officer wrapped around her little finger." Rodney spat back at him, gesturing down the hall to what Alice just realised was the guest quarters. John had just left Chaya's room, this late at night.

"Don't go there, McKay." John held up his finger threateningly, his eyes darted from Rodney to Alice. Alice's eyes were wide with shock and betrayal.

"I'm sorry. I know I'm not normally Mr. Sensitive, but you've got to believe me when I say there is something about her. I know it's intangible, but I can feel it—" Rodney kept arguing back.

John took a step toward McKay, he was furious "I said don't go there!"

"It's just a matter of time before I prove it, Major. I'm just recommending that in the meantime, you keep your…" Alice looked to see why Rodney stopped talking, Chaya had appeared from her room, she must've heard Rodney and John's raised voices. She crossed her arms angrily and stormed back into her room. John watched her leave and then shot Rodney a stern look.

Rodney stood his ground and then looked at Alice, "Let's leave Kirk to get back to his business." He started walking off down the hall.

Alice stood there a minute longer, John finally looked into her eyes "i can't believe you would do that." she tried to make her voice hard, but it came out as a high pitched whisper. Before she stepped past him to follow Rodney.

"Riles, wait please," John reached out and grabbed her arm, stopping her from moving.

"Don't..." she tugged her hand out of his grasp. Refusing to look at him as tears welled in her eyes.

Alice couldn't believe it, Rodney and her had actually been right. Chaya was actually an Ancient. This hadn't made her feel any better though, she was still upset with John and was still avoiding him.

It had been a couple of days since Chaya had revealed herself and fled back through the gate to protect her planet. They were supposed to be heading on a mission in the next few days, but Alice wasn't sure she'd be able to work alongside John like nothing had happened.

Today they were searching previously unexplored parts of the city, Alice had gotten Rodney to agree to let her work with him up in the control room rather than go with John and the team.

She hadn't been face to face with John since that night, and she was trying to make that last as long as possible. She knew it couldn't though, there wasn't exactly many people on the base and she was still a member of his team. At the moment, Alice was focusing her efforts on monitoring the power output, making sure nothing John or the team touched suddenly caused a spike in consumption.

"What? What is it?" Alice looked up Rodney looked excited. Alice had taken her earpiece out of her ear, she'd not really wanted John's voice in her head right now. Quickly she grabbed it off the table and replaced it in her ear.

"Some sort of laboratory." Teyla sounded distracted, she must've been looking around the room.

Rodney slouched back into his chair, seemingly unimpressed. "We've come across dozens of those. The city's full of them. Something unusual about it?"

"I'd have to say ... yes." John said.

"Why do I need to come?" Alice was following Rodney through the city resistantly. "I could monitor everything from the control room, I'm much more use up there!"

"Don't be ridiculous, come on. Beckett and Elizabeth are meeting us there." Rodney waved his hand dismissively at her. Alice groaned and plodded after him. She really didn't want this to the time to be in a small lab with John.

Alice stared down at the women in wonder, they'd removed her from the ice and were waiting to see if she would regain consciousness. "Aly dear, could you check her blood pressure?" Carson nodded at the machine. Alice nodded and began setting it up on the lady's arm.

"Breathing shallow, pulse rapid. I'll run an E.E.G. to determine any brain activity." he looked down and started touching the woman's hand.

"What is it?" Elizabeth shuffled closer trying to see what Carson was doing.

He pulled out a folded piece of paper, "Don't know." he passed it back to Elizabeth who unfolded it. Rodney moved to look over her shoulder.

"It's Gate addresses -- five of them." he announced to the group "M7G-677 -- we've been to this planet."

"Doctor Weir?" Alice looked down and realised the women had her eyes open now. Alice stopped what she was doing with the pressure cuff.

"Hello? Can you hear me?" Elizabeth spoke softly.

The woman didn't respond or react. "Yeah, that's what I was afraid of." Rodney waved his hand in front of her face. "Freezer burn."

"I thought she wasn't frozen?" Ford spoke from behind Alice.

"Ten thousand years -- d'you expect her to dance a bloody jig?" Alice smiled at Carson's sarcasm.

"It's the eyes, Carson, you look at the eyes. The lights are on but nobody's home." Alice watched at the women turned her head slightly to look directly at Rodney. "Don't take a medical professional to know that ..."

Elizabeth smiled "Of course she can see us." the women reacted and moved her head to look at Elizabeth "And hear us. Hello. How are you feeling?"

The woman looked like she was trying to smile "It worked"

"What was that?" Rodney still held the piece of paper in his hands.

"She said, "It worked."" Elizabeth repeated.

"What's that mean?" Rodney huffed.

"I assume something worked." Alice tensed as John spoke, he was behind Rodney. Alice had been careful not to look his way or meet his gaze since she'd stepped in the room. Though every so often she could feel his eyes on her.

"Yes, that's very sharp!" Rodney quipped back at him.

"Thank you!" even without looking Alice could tell he would have his signature smirk plastered on his face.

Alice watched as the woman closed her eyes and stopped moving, "Carson?" Alice said wearily.

"Right, let's get her to the infirmary." Carson checked her vitals once more, Alice stepped back to let the incoming medics take over.

"I want video on her at all times recording everything. We might not get a second chance at anything she may say." Elizabeth was already heading for the door, as she spoke over her shoulder at Carson.

Alice moved away and began to follow the rest of the team out of the room. They'd moved in a group, but Teyla, Ford and John moved off towards the armoury to stow their gear. Alice wanted to get out of there as soon as she could, she couldn't bear feeling his eyes on her.

She headed back to her quarters, Carson had said he'd radio them when the woman was awake again. She closed the door and let out a deep breath. She walked over to her desk and scooped up her datapad, intended to sift through some of the data they'd recently collected. The door chimed alerting her to someone outside, without thinking she yelled at them to come in thinking it was probably Ford or Rodney. She was still looking down at her desk when she heard them come in.

"Riles..." Alice froze, she hadn't expected his voice.

She turned quickly to see him standing a few steps from the door. "What are you doing here?"

"Why do you think I'm here, you've been avoiding me for the past couple of days" John took another step forward, but stopped himself from coming any closer, as Alice reactively stepped away from him. "Look nothing happened between Chaya and I."

Alice crossed her arms over her chest "I saw you coming out of her room."

John rubbed the back of his neck "Riles...I swear nothing happened.

Alice sighed "Look it's fine, just forget about it." Alice looked down, she was trying to force herself not to cry.

"No!" John took another step closer, his voice was tight and defensive. "Look, I'd just been escorting her back from another meeting with Elizabeth, they'd been talking for hours about faith and god..." John made a slightly disgusted expression.

She took in a deep breath, running one hand through her hair and placing the other on her hip she turned back to face him. "I'm sorry, I guess i'm just overreacting." she paused, John's eyes were staring intently at her "John...I'm so confused."

"What's wrong?" John took another step forward, he was close enough now to touch her. Alice looked down towards the floor, John reached out putting his fingers under her chin and lifted it up again.

"Just..." Alice's eyes were wide and unsure. "This is getting to real. We aren't supposed to..."

John rubbed his face, "Do you know how hard it is to see you, be around you and not be able to touch you or kiss you whenever I want. But, if we want a future together then we'd have to give up everything we've worked for." he moved and sat down on the bed, bringing his head down onto his hands.

Alice felt her shoulders relaxing, but she didn't move from where she was standing. "I'm just not sure i'm ready for this..."

John stood up and walked back over to her, he stopped a couple of steps away from her and held out his hand. Alice looked down at it for a second before taking it, she felt John tug on her arm and she let herself be pulled into his arms.

Alice revelled in the feel of his arms around her and the sound of his heartbeat, "I'm sorry."

John kissed the top of her head, his voice was barely audible. "What do you want to do?"

Alice could feel a dull ache in her chest, she knew this was a cross roads for them. But she couldn't honestly think of an answer for him right now. She loved spending time with him, and laughing with him. But he was right that for now they couldn't afford to feel anything deeper. "Can you give me a couple of days to think about it... please?" She whispered back to him.

He nodded, placing another kiss on her forehead. "Goodnight Alice."

Alice had barely slept that night, she had been trying to think through the situation she'd found herself in. A few minutes ago Alice had received a call through the radio to report to the conference room, apparently their ice lady had woken up again and told them a bit more about how she got there.

Alice jumped up the stairs, taking them two at a time, as she reached the last step she looked up to see Ford and John moving from the control room to the briefing room. John and her locked eyes for a second, she could see he was nervous and uncomfortable. She nodded quickly at them and moved into the room.

"Time travel?" Ford scoffed unbelieving.

"That's what she said." Elizabeth was standing up behind her chair "She somehow found a way to travel back in time to when the Ancients inhabited the city."

"How did she do this?" Teyla lent forward and rested an elbow on the table.

"That will be one of the first questions I ask her when she wakes up again." leaning forward onto her chair Elizabeth covered her mouth with her hands.

"...If she ever wakes up again." John raised his eyebrow and cast a quick glance towards Alice, before returning to look at Elizabeth.

"Well, let's not be too quick to exclude the possibility that the woman might be, umm, what is the clinical term ... nuts?" Rodney muttered, sarcasm dripping off his words.

"She may be senile, yes, but that doesn't explain that she knows so much about all of us." Alice could tell Elizabeth was concerned and struggling to understand what was happening.

"Is time travel even possible?" Ford looked around the room, swiveling his chair in a childlike fashion.

"Well, according to Einstein's General Theory of Relativity, there's nothing in the laws of physics to prevent - " Rodney started explaining.

Alice took in a deep breath and smiled at Ford's confused face "Basically, yes." Rodney gave her a disapproving look, "so long as you have the right tech, that is." She added to appease him.

Ford and John were both smiling at her "Not to mention a really nice DeLorean." John quipped

Rodney huffed "Don't even get me started on that movie!"

"I liked that movie!" John retorted.

"You like every movie..." Alice couldn't help but add smirking, Ford laughed and John sent her a dirty look.

They all turned as Carson entered the room with a tablet in his hands. "The results of the D.N.A. test. It's a match." He walked over and put the tablet down in front of Elizabeth. "She is you."

"Okay, even by SGC standards this is weird..." Alice saw Ford and John nodding in agreement with her. "maybe we should give Elizabeth a minute" Alice stood up as she saw Elizabeth staring down at the tablet. Teyla and the others stood up and headed towards the door.

"Alice?" Alice turned at the sound of her name, Teyla was walking up behind her smiling. "I was wondering if you wanted to have lunch with me?"

Alice gave Teyla a grateful smile "I'd love to!" as she walked off towards the mess hall, she could feel John's eyes following her out as he stood talking with Ford and Carson. It took most - if not all- of her willpower to not look back at him.

"It's such a nice day, do you want to sit outside?" Alice gestured with her tray to the open seating area outside the mess hall.

"Lead the way." Teyla followed her out the door and they found a table against the railing.

"Y'know sometimes i still can't believe I get to be here and do what I do..." Alice looked out across the city and the expansive ocean beyond them, a light breeze brushed past her face.

"You previously worked at Stargate Command, is it?" Teyla looked at her completely interested in her answer.

"Yeah, I was stationed there for just over two years before I was offered a position on the Atlantis expedition." Alice took a bite of her food, she'd never really spoken much about her life on Earth. Teyla knew she'd been part of the programme for a while, and that she didn't have any family left back in the Milky Way, but that was about it.

"And you were close with your former team members?" Teyla asked.

"I guess so, I actually wasn't with SG4 for long. It had only been about 6 months, before that I was on SG11. Now, that team I was close with." Alice stuffed another mouthful into her mouth.

"What were they like?" Teyla prodded her.

"They were my first SG team, so they put me through all my paces, pulled pranks on me, y'know the normal. But, one of team members Evan has been like a best friend ever since." Alice smiled, she felt a tinge of guilt creep up her.

"And you two were together?" Teyla looked at her curiously.

"Um... not at first. See, it would have been against military regulations for us to be anything more than teammates while he was my direct report. He was a Major, and I was only a Lieutenant." Alice fidgeted with her hands slightly, "but once I moved to SG4" she paused, "y'see we don't get a lot of time off base."

Teyla just nodded knowingly, with a slight smirk on her face. "But you two are no longer...um...dating?"

"i really wouldn't have called it dating in the first place, more like just blowing off some steam." Alice blushed slightly.

Teyla seemed to tell she was getting uncomfortable, "what about the military then, what made you want to become a soldier?"

Alice inhaled, "That's simple, they paid for my degree. Now enough about me, tell me more about how your people are doing on the mainland."

Teyla's face beamed "They're doing quite well, the children have been asking for you to come visit though. They enjoy your games."

Alice laughed "I never once thought I'd ever be teaching stuck in the mud to kids from a different galaxy. I'll try and request to fly a supply mission over soon though."

Teyla was about to reply when both the sound of their names came through the radios "SGA-1, please report to the briefing room." They both exchanged a quick look then stood up heading towards the main tower.

Alice was leaning up against the table, the rest of her team was there now as well, waiting for Elizabeth. Rodney had just been explaining that they'd given the Alternate Elizabeth a slight stimulant to try keep her awake longer. He'd also told them what she'd said about the 'first' time they'd arrived. Alice was growing increasingly unnerved.

Elizabeth soon appeared with Alt. Elizabeth in a wheelchair. Once they'd all settled she cleared her throat "Seeing the city like this, sitting on the surface of the ocean -- you can't imagine how relieved I am."

"What are you saying? The city didn't rise the first time round?" Rodney's voice was fast paced and slightly high pitched.

"No. No. The city was in serious trouble the very moment we arrived." Alt. Elizabeth's voice was grave. She explained how the shield had began to collapse around them, as soon as they'd started moving out and exploring.

"Colonel Sumner drowned?!" Elizabeth asked in shock, she looked around at the rest of the team, everyone had a similar horrified expression on their faces.

"And he wasn't the only one to perish." she continued, her voice low and solemn, she turned her face towards Alice. "Captain Riley" Alice swallowed and felt a cold chill run up her spine. "You tried to get everyone back into the gateroom, but the shield was collapsing too fast. The bulkheads to the control room sealed themselves and..." Alice couldn't bear to look around at her team. She didn't want to see the looks of horror or sadness on any of them.

"Riles..." she heard John move in his seat.

Alice held up her hand, "I'm okay." She took in a deep breath "please, Dr Weir continue."

Alt. Elizabeth nodded and turned to Rodney "Despite your efforts, there was nothing you could do, Rodney. Within seconds the Control Room was flooded."

Rodney stared at her in shock, "I died?!"

"You never gave up trying, right until the end." Alt. Elizabeth said a distinct sound of pride in her tone.

"Well, a man wonders how he would choose to go out, given such dire circumstances. Now I know." Rodney tried to calm his expression and shuffled in his seat.

"Trying to save the lives of others. Both of you." she turned to look at Alice as well.

"But ultimately failing!" John quipped, throwing a smug look at Rodney.

"I'm sure if I had a few more seconds, I ..." he started defensively.

Elizabeth shook her head "Wait a second." she interrupted Rodney. "Why didn't the failsafe mechanism engage and raise the city to the surface?"

"Because there was no failsafe the first time. Atlantis remained on the ocean floor. The shield completely collapsed. Water came crashing in, flooding every room in the city." She looked at Ford and Carson. "You both drowned while attempting to get our people into ships." Ford and Carson looked at each other uncomfortably, then Alt. Elizabeth turned to John "And we, along with Doctor Zelenka, we found ourselves trapped." she began breathing fast, her voice coming out scared and uneven "We were under attack. We didn't know where we were or who was shooting at us. And that's when John ..." Her head lolled to the side and her eyes shut.

"Carson!" everyone was out of their seats.

Carson rushed over to where Alt. Elizabeth was, tapping his earpiece "This is Beckett -- I need medical assistance in the Conference Room, A.S.A.P!"

Alice and the team watched as Carson and the medics took Alt. Elizabeth back down to the infirmary.

Alice had her arms crossed over her stomach, the cold chill hadn't left her body. "Riles, you okay?" John had come over to her and put his hand on her shoulder.

"it's just..." Alice didn't even know how to put it into words.

"Unsettling?" John tried to offer.

Alice just nodded, "just to think it had all ended there. No future, no Atlantis..." she paused for a minute and bit her lip "no us..." she whispered quietly so the others wouldn't hear.

John took in a deep breath, "but it didn't happen, and we're here." he gave her shoulder a reassuring squeeze, "and that's all that matters."

"Alice!" Rodney walked over to them clicking his fingers, "I need you to help me sift through the database, see if we can find any mentions of this time Jumper."

Alice ran her fingers through her hair, "Sure Rodney. I'll see you later Major." John lifted his hand off her shoulder and gave her a small smile.

Alice and Rodney we're heading to the infirmary, although they hadn't yet found a mention of the Jumper in the database. Rodney'd had an idea about how it could all come make sense.

"Well, it's obvious." he didn't even wait until he was fully in the room to begin talking. John and Elizabeth were standing near Alt. Elizabeth's bedside, they both looked up as Rodney began speaking. "The Puddle Jumper they escaped in must have been some sort of a time machine; had to have an additional component built into it."

"Flux capacitor!" John said shrugging.

Rodney gave him a skeptical, surprised look "... Yeah. The question is, where's the time machine now, hmm?"

"Why don't we ask her?" Alice took a few steps to see Alt. Elizabeth starting to open her eyes.

"What happened?" her voice was gravelly and rough.

Elizabeth moved closer to her alternate counterpart "Can you tell us: the ship that you escaped in -- where is it now?"

"It's gone." she whispered. Alice brought her arms up to hug herself as she listened to Alt. Elizabeth describe how John, Radek and her had engaged the Wraith - the only survivors of the entire expedition. "The next thing I knew, I woke up here."

John shuffled his feet "You mean now?"

"No. Then." she clarified, she explained how an Ancient named Janus had found the Jumper crashed into the ocean and she was the only survivor.

"Ha!" Rodney exclaimed "Ah, the bitter taste of ultimate failure, hmm?" He smiled smugly at John.

John gave him a displeased look "Well, if you'd just figured out how to fix the damn shield in the first place, none of us would have died."

Alt-Elizabeth smiled fondly at the sight of the pair of them bickering, while Elizabeth just rolled her eyes.

"I did everything I could, including valiantly attempting to save your sorry ..." Rodney took a step forward, Alice sighed giving Teyla an exasperated look.

"Gentlemen. Focus." Elizabeth said sternly at the two men. "Please, continue."

"Needless to say, I was very confused. He explained to me that the ship we had escaped in was a time machine. He was the one who built it. After I was feeling better, he brought me before the Atlantean Council." Alt. Elizabeth's voice grew weaker as she spoke and by the end of the sentence she'd fallen back asleep.

The rest of them stood there for a minute, trying to decide what to do. "We can't really afford to miss being hearing about her time with the Ancients." Alice murmured softly, "the things she could tell us. i mean there are so many things we still don't understand."

Elizabeth and John agreed "okay, well let's all stay and take shifts keeping an eye on her. That way we won't miss anything."

They all then moved around the room, to find a comfortable spot to rest in whilst they waited. Alice took one of the nurses chairs and brought it over to the end of the bed. A few hours had passed Alt. Elizabeth was still unconscious, Alice had propped her feet up against the wall and had drifted into a light sleep. She could just about hear Rodney snoring a little further away from her, and she could pick out the deep low breaths of John.

Alice awoken suddenly as she heard Elizabeth speaking "The note she left" Alice rubbed her eyes, and tried to focus on what Elizabeth was saying "-- coordinates of planets to have known Z.P.Ms."

Rodney, who had been lying down on an empty bed, jumped down and fumbled trying to pull the note out of his pocket. As he exposed it, John took it from him. "They could still be there." his voice was rough, but full of optimism.

"M7G-677's on here!" Rodney exclaimed, pointing to one of the addresses "I mean, this is amazing! Elizabeth, we've got ..." He trailed off and Alice followed his eye line to Alt. Elizabeth who had closed her eyes. Elizabeth walked slowly over to her older self, and gently took her hand. Alice bowed her head in respect and nudged Rodney towards the exit. She looked back just before they walked out the door, to see Elizabeth start to cry and John awkwardly putting his hand on her shoulder.

Elizabeth was strong and she was the perfect leader for this expedition, she was glad that she trusted John enough to show her more vulnerable side.

Alice flopped down onto the gym mats. She'd not been able to sleep, too much had happened over the past couple of weeks. For what felt like the millionth time she'd almost been killed by the Wraith, she'd found out she'd died in a different reality and her and John were in a state of hiatus. It all just felt like too much.

She reached up and wiped the sweat off her forehead, she guessed it was roughly 4am, so unsurprisingly the gym was empty. Normally, she would have been cuddled up in bed with John by now. His absence hit her harder than she thought. She still hadn't decided what to do. She couldn't deny her feelings for him, but she was terrified of what they could mean, or if their feelings put their mission in jeopardy then surely they had to stay apart.

She laid there and let her mind wander. It wasn't often that she felt homesick, but right now she wished she could simply get up and walk out of the SGC and go to the nearest bar with her friends to drown out their sorrows. Although she'd gotten close to her Atlantis teammates, she missed the friendships she'd left back home, Evan in particular. With how things now were with John, she felt like she had no one to pour her emotions out to.

FLASHBACK

"Phew!" Alice braced her body as she jumped through the gate and landed heavily on the steel ramp in the SGC. Her SG4 teammates were ahead of her, they'd just returned from a supply and update mission to Langara - following SG1's recent mission to save Kelowna from Anubis.

"Welcome home SG4" Sergeant Walter Harriman's voice echoed around the gateroom.

"Right, clean yourselves up and report for debriefing in an hour." Alice nodded as her CO unstrapped his helmet and headed towards the men's locker room.

Unclipping her own helmet, she began walking down the ramp and out the left sliding door. She reached up and ran her fingers through her hair, catching them in the small knots that had began to form. "Well don't you look positively filthy." Alice sneered as Major Evan Lorne appeared in the hall in front of her. He was dressed in his regular SGC uniform, he must've either already come back off a mission today or wasn't scheduled for one.

"You spend three days down a naquadria mine and see how dirty you look..." Alice snarked back to him.

Evan stared seriously back at her for a second and then a mischievous glint lit up his face, "who ever said I was talking about the dirt." He had a cheeky grin on his face as he looked Alice up and down.

Alice couldn't help but smile at him, "you can't keep your mind out of the gutter for one minute can you," she rolled her eyes at him. "I need to get ready for our team debrief." She started to resume her path towards the locker room.

Evan smiled and moved aside "hey, some of us are heading out of the hole into town for drinks tonight, you up for it?" He looked hopefully at her.

Alice took a couple steps forward "As long as your paying." She quickly kissed his cheek and then took off.

The debrief didn't take long, the core had stabilised and the Langaran's seemed to be back on their feet. Alice was in her quarters getting ready to go out, she'd put on a maroon high waisted skirt and simple black top. She pulled her hair up into a messy bun and pulled a few strands of her brown hair out to frame her face.

She heard a knock on her door, quickly taking a look in the mirror she walked over and opened the door. Grabbing her purse and keycard as she went. Evan was stood against the doorway grinning "you ready?"

"Mhmm" Alice smiled and pulled the door shut behind her. Together they walked towards the main elevator. "So, who's out tonight?"

Evan reached out and pushed the call button, "Holmes, Ryans, Marco, Ritter, and a couple of the nurses."

Alice clicked her tongue, "sounds like a good-" just then the elevator opened to reveal Daniel Jackson and Lt Colonel Carter.

Alice quickly stepped next to Evan to make a space, "evening."

Daniel smiled at the two of them as he stepped out of the elevator "Major, Alice. You two going up?"

"Yeah, we're heading out to a bar in town. Either of you feel like escaping the mountain?" Alice looked at both Carter and Daniel.

"Sorry, we're heading out early in the morning. Have a drink for us though." Carter replied smiling at the two of them. She'd held her hand out to hold the doors open as Alice and Evan stepped inside.

"Next time then!" Alice called as the doors started closing.

They met up with the rest of the group on the surface level and managed to convince an Airman driving a supply truck to drop them off in town. Laughing they made their way into one of the few bars in the town, and took up a free space down at the corner of the bar. It was a Thursday night, so it wasn't too busy.

"you want the usual?" Evan placed his hand on Alice's shoulder as she hopped up onto one of the bar stools.

"Yes please" she said enthusiastically, Evan chuckled and moved towards the bartender, "but can you get an extra cherry!" She called out quickly to him.

"So, how you been Riley!" Ritter took the seat next to her. "We've missed our little rookie." He reached out and went to tussle her hair.

"Watch it Ritter!" She grabbed his wrist and pulled her head away from his grasp. "I'm not the SG11 rookie anymore..." she muttered, throwing his wrist back towards him.

"Aww don't be like, you'll always be our little rookie who threw up the first time she stepped through the gate." Ritter grinned at her, whilst she gave him an evil glare. He wasn't wrong though, her first trip through the Stargate almost a year ago had been rough.

"Give it a rest Ritter, don't forget I was there for your first trip..." Evan had returned with two drinks in his hands, a disaronno and coke for Alice and a beer for himself.

Ritter shook his head "that's not fair, you're supposed to take my side"

"Since when?" Evan lifted his beer up to his lips and took a swig, "besides Aly is much better company than you."

Alice stuck her tongue out at Ritter, who just smiled and took a sip of his drink. He muttered something about them but stopped as he saw Evan watching him.

A few drinks later, the boys had decided it was time to show off their masterful dance skills. Alice sat on her stool with her legs crossed watching Evan and Ritter clear an area in the dance floor as they showed off their breakdance moves. Alice lent back on the bar, slipping her straw in her mouth.

The nurses from the base had headed back already as they were on call in the morning, so that left Alice with Holmes from SG6. Both of them had knocked back a few drinks, and Alice had been trying to explain something to Holmes, but his head was focused on the girls across from them. "Go talk to them! Staring at them like that is only going to creep them out."

"But...what do i say?" He looked at her slightly hopelessly. Holmes was the same age as Alice and as far as anyone knew he'd never really had a proper girlfriend. He was a good looking guy, just shy when it came to talking to girls.

Alice brought her head close to him, "you travel across the galaxy, facing unknown horrors...yet you cringe away from speaking to a girl." Alice smiled at him. "Just go say hi, ask about her." She moved back to her original position, almost falling off her chair in the process. Holmes took a deep breath and started to stand up "oh and mention you're military, girls love guys in uniform" she winked at him and turned her attention back to Ritter and Evan.

There were a few girls at the edge of the dance floor eyeing the two boys up. Ritter seemed to be eating up the attention, and moved over to kick up a conversation with them, pulling one of them onto the filling dance floor. Evan was walking back over to Alice. "You guys are great!" Alice laughed at him.

Evan took a gulp of his beer, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and then offering the other one out to Alice. "Would you like to dance?" He gave her a wide grin.

"You know i'm not a good dancer..." Alice said hesitantly, but she reached out and let him pull her off her seat. Glad to have his strong arms to catch her as she stumbled a bit.

"You just need to let go a bit, you're just too tense." They got onto the dancefloor, Evan pulled her in close with his hands on her hips. She reached up and wrapped her arms behind his neck. She drew in a deep breath and lifted her chin to look him in the eye.

He was already staring down at her, "y'know that you're my best friend..." he slurred slightly, but his voice was slightly husky.

"Only cause no one else will put up with you" Alice giggled.

Evan chuckled slightly, and pursed his lips slightly. Slowly, he started leaning in towards her. Alice held her breath and felt herself tilting her head to meet his lips. She could taste the bitterness of the beer on his tongue. She brought herself up onto her tip toes so she could push herself against him more.

Evan squeezed her hips, as they both pulled away to take in deep breaths. Without pausing he started trailing kisses along her jaw and down her neck. "Oi! Get a room you two!" Alice smirked and just held her finger up towards Ritter's voice. Evan chuckled.

"He's right, let's go" Evan quickly knelt down and threw Alice over his shoulder, she shrieked in surprise. "Back to the mountain!" He stretched out his arm and put his leg up on a chair in a typical hero pose.

"Put me down" Alice was laughing and lightly pounding on Evan's back. But he just proceeded to carry her out the door.

Alice felt her head throbbing, she groaned slightly. Somewhere a light was on and it felt like it was shining straight into her face. She moved to grab her pillow and pull it over her face, but when she reached up she felt something soft and spiky. Opening her eyes she saw a mass of brown hair and the skin of a man's shoulder.

She blinked slowly and lifted her head, "Evan?" She whispered.

"Go back to sleep Aly-cat." Evan grumbled, shuffling himself and pulling the blanket up.

Alice moved so she was sitting up, the light that had been bothering her before was Evan's digital alarm clock, that was offensively bright green. Alice took in a deep breath and grabbed the glass of water next to the bed.

She finished off the water and looked at the clock, it ready 5:46am. This was around the time she'd normally be getting up anyway. She reached over to the bedside table and took out the spare hair tie she kept there, and quickly wrapped her hair up into a bun.

This wasn't the first time Evan and her had spent the night together, after she'd moved to SG4 a few drinks and they'd both given into the desire. Alice looked down at Evan, he was really the only person she'd felt comfortable to let her guard down with.

Alice yawned, "come on Evan! I'm hungry" she whined, as she moved his arm so she could rest her head on his chest.

"What time is it?" He mumbled sleepily.

"About 6ish" she felt his arm moving to embrace her as his face screwed up. She knew he wouldn't be going back to sleep now. "And it's pancake day today." She poked his nose.

"Alright, alright" he opened his eyes and looked down at her. "I'm up."

Together they got out of bed and picked up their discarded clothes from the night before. "I'm gonna hit the showers first, i'll meet you in the mess." She gave him a mock salute and headed out the door back to her room.

When Alice made it to the mess hall, Evan was already there sat with Daniel Jackson. "Morning Daniel, Evan" she greeted them.

"Morning" they both replied to her. She grabbed a plate of food and joined them.

"So where are you headed this morning?" Alice looked at Daniel.

"We're headed to the alpha site to resupply and Sam wants to check on the progress of the new weapon." Daniel said softly. "What about you two, what are you doing on your day off?"

Evan nodded at Alice to go first, "not much, i'm just planning on staying on base. I've got some more reading to do, still deciding if i will finish my doctorate."

"You really should" Evan said through a mouthful of pancake, they'd had this conversation a few times. Alice just wasn't sure she'd be able to complete it, or if she even wanted to. Alice gave him a sharp look. Evan cleared his throat "I'm heading home to see my sister and my nephews." He grinned at the both of them.

"That sounds very nice, Alice i hope-" Daniel stopped mid-sentence at O'Neill came through the door and gestured for him to follow. Alice and Evan waved goodbye as Daniel made a hasty exit.

"I don't want to hear it Evan!" She said quickly seeing his mouth open and the look in his eyes.

"Come on Aly, we both know you're smart enough to. You just need to apply yourself, why are you so afraid of committing yourself to something" Evan took another bite, "okay, okay but you know i think you can do anything." He held up both of his hands in surrender.

Alice smiled at him and shook her head, "so, when do you need to head out?"

"Probably around 7:30ish. So, not too long" he brought his wrist up and looked at his watch. "Why? What you thinking?" He eyed her suspiciously.

"Well..." she started slowly, "I thought we could finally watch the last episode of Star Trek" she smiled eagerly at him.

He rolled his eyes at her "you're ridiculous, you know that what we do is so much cooler than Star Trek."

"I know! But we promised to watch it together, and we hardly ever get a spare moment to watch it." She pouted at him "and we left it on a huge cliffhanger...come onnnn" she droned out.vc bbf

Evan smiled "alright, but only one episode." He picked up both their trays, whilst Alice jumped up and headed for the rec room.

Grabbing one of the dvd cases of the stack she slipping in the movie and flopped onto the sofa. Evan walked in a few seconds later, sitting down next to her and placing his arm across the back of the sofa.

End of flashback

Alice sighed, pulling herself up off the mat. It was only a few weeks after that, that Ritter had been killed offworld on a mission. The next few weeks had gone past in a blur, Alice and Evan had both retreated from grief and not spent a lot of time together.

She'd started to pull back from everyone and do what she did when things got a bit too intense. Ritter's death was a stark reminder of why she was afraid of getting close to people. Evan had finally confronted her about it. They'd had a fight and hadn't spoken since.

Before they could resolve it, Alice had been offered the position on the Atlantis expedition. And she'd struggled to tell him. She deeply regretted this, she wished she could go back and apologise to him.

Alice thought about how she'd feel if she had to go back to just being friends with John. She groaned out loud and threw her face into her hands. She didn't understand how everything had become so complicated, she had fun with John and enjoyed teasing him, especially when he couldn't react. But if her feelings ran any deeper...

"Woah, the gym mat kicking your ass?" Ford stood in the entrance of the gym looking awkwardly at Alice.

"No..." Alice sighed and started to pick herself off the mat "just a lot on my mind."

"This is about that guy isn't it" Ford flashed a grin at her.

"No! And my dating life is none of your business" Alice crossed her arms over her chest and popped her hip.

"Mhmm" Ford gave her a disbelieving look. "Well I actually did come here looking for you." Alice tilted her head and looked at him curiously, she also just noticed that he had his thigh holster on with a gun stuffed in it.

Alarm flashed through her "what's going on?"

Ford chuckled "calm down, you up for a litte game of predator?" He drew another gun from the back of his waistband. She could see the bright red glow of the In'tar.

The alarm Alice had just felt vanished instantly. She was grinning at Ford and hopped towards him taking the training gun out of his hand. "So, who's are we and who's playing?!" She said enthusiastically.

"Stackhouse, Fields and Royce are the omnis, you, Lloyd, Hindle and me are Carnis, and Brooks, Michaels, Salmon, Shields, Thompson and Crewe are the herbs." Ford explained grinning. "Though some of SGA 5 are joining later, they'll radio which teams."

"You guys are so cruel putting the juniors as herbs" Alice shook her head but was smiling wide. "What are the boundaries?"

"We've taken over the whole south pier." Ford looked like an excited child. "We're on half intensity and omnis are on full, so try not to get hit." with that Ford took out his on In'tar and headed out towards the south pier.

* * *

Alice and Ford had split up, she was crouched walking through the hall. She'd heard a noise up ahead and was trying to see whether it was one of the herbs or an omni. She held her In'tar out in front of her, she stopped and placed her back up against the wall and took in a small breath. She'd reached the only open doorway in the hall, if someone had been in the hall they'd have to be in here.

She rolled her weight onto the balls of her feet, bouncing up and down lightly, before spinning through the doorway and into the room. Keeping low, she swept the room noticing a flicker of movement to her right. She quickly aimed her gun, "Lloyd?" she breathed a sigh of relief.

"Riley?" Lloyd looked relieved to see her. "Thank god, I just managed to escape Royce. I thought you were him."

"Just little ol'me" Alice smiled back at him, she picked herself off the floor, but kept low to the ground. "Have you seen anyone else?"

Lloyd looked out the door behind her, shaking his head "no-one other than Royce."

"Okay, let's get moving. We're sitting ducks in here." Lloyd nodded in agreement. Quietly they headed out the room, and down the hall.

They'd decided to stick together, whilst moving towards the abandoned labs they'd managed to hit Thompson and get one of his life bands. They were moving now towards the upper balconies, as they turned the corner though Stackhouse was walking towards them. "Run!" Alice yelled, as a red energy blast soared past her head.

Alice and Lloyd quickly raced back the way they came. They were running as fast as they could, skidding around corners and blindly firing back on Stackhouse. Alice was looking behind her as they turned a corner, she came to an abrupt halt as she slammed into a hard object. She felt herself careen towards the floor, before she could feel the impact from the floor she felt body tense in pain as she was struck with Stackhouses' In'tar.

"Omphh" she hit the ground, but it was soft and warm. "God, what the hell are you guys doing?" She heard John's voice in her ear.

She opened her eyes and found herself face to face with him. Both of their faces were scrunched up in pain, John had been touching her when she'd been shot by the In'tar. "Oh damn, sorry sir." Alice felt hands gripping her arms and pulling her off John.

Stackhouse propped Alice up next to him, while Lloyd pulled John to his feet and helped him lean against the wall. "Again...what the hell are you doing?" John repeated himself, his voice prickling with annoyance.

"Um..." Stackhouse muttered.

"We're just getting in some late night training, sir" Alice jumped in lying swiftly, trying to stop herself from wincing as she spoke.

"Training..." John repeated in disbelief, cocking an eyebrow and staring at her.

Alice pursed her lips trying to keep a smile off her face, "yes, sir."

"And how many of you are out here training exactly?" John said in his lofty voice.

"Just us, sir" Lloyd jumped in at this point. He was standing at attention, with a deadpan serious look on his face. Alice wasn't sure how he was doing it.

John started stretching out his limbs, pulling a face slightly as he did. "Uh huh, right. And you didn't think you should have made your CO aware of these late night...training sessions," John swept his gaze across from Lloyd to Alice and then Stackhouse.

Alice pushed herself off Stackhouse, regaining most of her motorcontrol now. "We didn't think it was necessary to distrub you, sir." Alice stretched out the last word slightly as she said it, giving him a small smile.

"Sure" John muttered, he picked up Alice's In'tar that had fallen on the floor when she'd crashed into John. "I guess this is only fair then." John turned up the intensity and fired at Lloyd and Stackhouse. He then turned the gun on Alice.

She held up her hands quickly in defeat, listening to the two soldiers groaning on the floor. "Hey, i got the same hit as you before."

John smiled at her, "you should get better at lying. Training? Really?" Alice took a step back, glancing down quickly at the ground. "Also if you're going to play predator and keep it a secret you should try not to use a general radio frequency Stackhouse." John looked down at him tensed up on the floor.

Alice took John's momentary distraction as her opening, moving quickly she dived down and grabbed Stackhouse's In'tar and fired at John. She missed, but it gave her enough time to spin and turn around the corner. "Guess this means you're in the game!" She yelled back to him.

She was grinning as John chased after her, she shot back at him a couple of times. She rounded a corner and saw a doorway heading to a couple of abandoned labs, dashing inside she quickly chose a room and dove behind one of the control panels.

Panting heavily, she crouched down and pressed her back up against the base of the control panel. Her heart was racing. The room she was in was completely dark, with only a thin strip of blue light emiting from the powered down console. She strained her ears to hear any sign of footsteps approaching.

She couldn't hear anything yet, though he couldn't have been too far behind her. Another few seconds went by and she still heard nothing, inhaling she began to peek around the corner of the console to look at the doorway. Nothing. She resumed her original position, then again she moved to peek around, she jumped back squealing in surprise as John's face appeared close to hers. "Got you!" The next thing she saw was the room lighting up with a flash of red. "And it looks like that was your last life." He chuckled, as she spasmed on the floor.

"Not...fair..." Alice managed to say between her clenched teeth. Though she did notice he'd turned down the intensity before he hit her, so she was already regaining control of herself. "You play dirty." She exhaled as her muscles finally stopped tensing.

"You should know that better than anyone," John winked at her and pulled her up to her feet.

"And since you know me so well, this shouldn't come as a surprise!" She shot her In'tar, hitting John square in the chest. He groaned, gripping the panel he slowly slid down onto the floor. Alice was grinning and giggling. She squated down next to him, "i think i win."

 **A/N** Hope you enjoyed the read! The next chapter might take me a while to get up, but I'll do my best!


	8. Chapter 8

**A/N Once again sorry for how long it's taken me to get this chapter up. I'm hoping to get the next one up a lot sooner, so you'll have double the amount of Riley and Sheppard.**

 **Happy reading.**

Alice huffed, she fidgeted uncomfortably shifting her vest. She was sat at a long table with John, Teyla and Ford looking through some old scrolls and books. This was one of the planets listed in Alt. Weir's note that could have a ZPM somewhere. Unfortunately, they'd been here a while already and they had nothing to show for it.

John and Ford had looked up at her from their own scrolls when she'd huffed, Ford smiling had already looked back down to his scroll, but John let his gaze linger on her a bit longer.

Alice shuffled a bit more and returned her attention back to the scrolls. She could feel her face growing hot as she felt John's eyes on her. Things bad been a little awkward the past couple of days since playing Predator. They'd not spoken since and every time they'd seen eachother it had been terribly awkward.

Alice put her hand up to her face and let her hair drop creating a sort of barrier between her and John. She just hoped none of their teammates had picked up on the tension rolling off the two of them.

"Okay, bets in. How long till McKay makes a move?" Ford lent in slightly across the table.

"Ptsh, never" John looked away from Alice over to Ford.

"10 that she gets fed up and makes a move first." Alice winked at Ford, who grinned at her.

They all turned to look at Rodney and Allina talking, Allina was leaning forward and staring up at Rodney. Anyone looking could see she was into him, well except Rodney. Rodney was looking through an old book completely oblivious. They all turned back to look at each other and burst into laughter.

Alice pursed her lips to stop her from grinning as Rodney approached them with an irritated look spread across his face. "What is going on here?" His voice was sharp and low.

"Just having a little fun, McKay." In comparison, John's voice was soft and lofty.

"Can we get back to work now?" He looked impatiently at John then across the rest of the team.

Ford shoved the book out from under him "I just don't see how running through history books is going to find us our ZPM."

Rodney shook his head and held up a piece of parchment, Alice groaned ready for another Rodney lecture, "Really? See this? This is a charcoal rubbing taken from an Ancient temple built about the time Weir's list was written. Notice anything familiar? Hmm? It's a ZPM. Look, we are close, closer than we have ever been before. Now, there may very well be hundreds of zero-point modules hidden in this galaxy, but the only one we are remotely sure of is here. Here." Rodney paused, his voice changing to a softer sombre tone, "Now, if you ever want to go home, if you ever want to protect Atlantis from the Wraith, we need to find this."

No one could really argue with that, so they went back to quietly reading.

* * *

Alice walked around in the field just past the gate. John, Teyla and Rodney had all headed back to Atlantis to report into Elizabeth and decide if it was worth the investment. Ford and Alice had stayed behind.

"How long do you think they'll be?" Ford's voice crackled over her radio.

"What? You got somewhere better to be?" Alice replied, as she continued to walk around looking at the landscape.

"No...but they're serving that Athosian dish for dinner tonight." Ford whined.

Alice chuckled, "do you ever think about anything other than food?" Alice stopped and turned to head back towards the gate. Though she made a wider arc, so that she could follow a different path back. "Anything happening in the village?"

"Nothing interesting... what do you think Weir is going to say?"

"If Rodney is as annoying as normal, then she's probably going to green light it. That is so long as she's happy with Sheppard's opinion." Alice swept her hand over some flower, picking a leaf from the bush.

"You're probably right" Alice nodded to herself as she listened to Ford, she could start to see the top of the Stargate through the trees. "Hey, do you think something is going on between the two of them?"

Alice screwed up her face, "what? Elizabeth and Sheppard? No way, she's far too practical and sophisticated to be interested in him."

Ford's laugh rumbled through the radio, "Yeah, you're probably right."

"Hold up, the gate is activating." Alice started running back the last few meters, taking up a defensive position in the tree line.

The puddle rippled and John, Teyla and Rodney stepped through. Each of them were lugging heavy equipment, well John and Teyla's looked heavy. "Afternoon travellers" Alice stepped out from her position, waving to the team.

* * *

The team had split up to search for these tiles in different grid sections. Rodney had gone with Allina at John's request, Ford and Teyla has headed off to search another couple of sections and that left Alice with John.

They were walking through the forest towards their first grid section. "Alright, let's have a quick break." Alice sighed in relief and dropped the heavy equipment she was carrying. They had a few Dagans with them who also dropped down to the floor to rest.

John gestured with his head to Alice, she stretched her back quickly and then moved to where John was standing. "You okay?" He asked her softly.

"Yeah fine, what's up?" Alice was breathing slightly heavy, but she put her hands on her hips to keep her from folding over.

"I dunno, could be nothing, but I've got a weird feeling." John lent in closer, keeping his voice low. Alice tried to stop the blush from creeping up her cheeks, as she could feel his breath tickling her neck.

"Really?" She tried to keep her voice steady, she swallowed quickly before speaking again, "what kind of feeling?"

"Just feel like we're being watched..." John cast a precautionary glance over at the Dagans.

"None of the Dagans seem to be hostile, or shown any ill intent." Alice shrugged, "Maybe you're just a little paranoid" she smiled. John shot her a quick glare, she raised her hands up, "okay, well always better to be cautious. I'll keep my eyes open."

They'd been digging for hours now, Alice stabbed her shovel into the ground, resting on it as she wiped the sweat off her forehead. "Are we sure these things are buried here!?" Alice yelled over to John who was digging nearby.

John looked up from his area, taking a rest from digging. "For McKay's sake they better be." Alice stared at John as he grabbed the bottom of his shirt and lifted it up to wipe his face. Alice could see the taunt muscles of his stomach and the top of his pelvic V. John brought his shirt down and grinned as he caught her staring at him.

She was blushing furiously as she turned her head away and started digging again. She was too embarrassed to look at John for the next half an hour, trying to keep her focus solely on excavating her area.

"Hey!" She looked up to see John knelt down in the dirt, he was waving. "Check this out!" Alice dropped her shovel and jogged over to him, climbing up and over the mound of excavated dirt. In his hands was a dark grey box, he opened the lid carefully revealing a tile inside.

"Damn, this means I have to take Ford's night patrol..." Alice muttered as John held up the tile.

"You need to stop betting with Ford." He shook his head and radioed the others and let them know we'd found ours and were heading onto the next site.

* * *

Alice was shoveling food into her mouth, she looked up to see Ford and John staring at her oddly. "What? I'm hungry..." she shrugged and continued eating.

"Y'know Aly sometimes you can be really attractive...and other times." Ford exhaled raising his eyebrows. Alice poked her tongue out and flicked a bit of her food at him.

"Alright kids, settle down." John flicked a piece of Alice's food off his shoulder.

Alice smirked and watched as Rodney entered the room. "I'm heading to bed." He gestured towards the house where they'd kindly been offered lodging.

"Which bed might that be?" John quipped back at him quickly. Alice and Ford both grinned and snickered under their breath.

"What" Rodney looked at them with his brow furrowed.

"I think Allina might have a little crush on you, Doc." Ford explained, a wide grin still plastered on his face.

"Oh, she does?" He tilted his head to the side, his eyes were as wide as saucers.

"It is very clear to us all." Teyla commented nodding her head to where Allina had been a few moments before.

Rodney looked surprised at her, "It is?" He looked at Alice for confirmation. She was still putting food into her mouth, but gave him a obvious nod.

"Well, everyone but you, apparently." John said watching Alice and wrinkling his nose slightly.

"Should I have, um…" Rodney started looked around and gesturing wildly "Are you sure about this?"

John gave Rodney a deadpan look, "Yeah, I'm very sure."

"What should I do?" Rodney looked completely flustered.

"You don't know what to do?" Alice almost gagged on her food as John looked at Rodney questionably.

"I know what to do, eventually." Rodney said with an exasperated sigh, "I mean, what should I do now? Should I say something, something tonight?"

"Go tell he-" Alice started to mumble through her full mouth.

John interrupted her, giving her a quick stare "Tell you what, Valentino—wait till tomorrow. You'll be more on your game after you get some rest."

"Oh. Right. Right. Good answer." Rodney stood up straighter and looked back over to where Allina was standing, clearing his throat he said loudly "Goodnight."

"Night lover boy" Alice called after him.

After he left the room the team all burst out into laughter. "Looks like our little Rodney is growing up!" Alice giggled.

"I wonder if he really does know what to do? I mean has anyone seen him date anyone?" Ford looked at Alice and Teyla.

"Why are you looking at us?" Teyla questioned.

"I dunno, girls gossip" Ford shrugged.

"Oh right, cause guys don't discuss their sex lives. Especially you military guys." Alice pointed an accusatory finger at both John and Ford.

John pointed at himself and looked mockingly offended "We would never..."

Alice just rolled her eyes, "sureeeee" she dragged the word out. She looked at Teyla, a mutual understanding flashing between them, "well, we'll see you...gentlemen in the morning"

"Goodnight, Major. Lt." Teyla nodded her head respectfully, while Alice winked at them, before both her and Teyla started heading towards the house.

* * *

Alice was digging. Again. The sun bore down on her, she was regretting her current wardrobe choice of her standard issue black t-shirt. It was soaking up the heat like no one's business.

Groaning she pulled her shirt up and over her head, revealing her red sports bra underneath. She saw a couple of the Dagans give her an odd look, but no one seemed overtly offended. She dragged her hand up through her hair, bringing the loose strands of her back up into her bun.

"Careful Aly, you don't want to excite the locals too much." Ford chuckled, she could only just see his face past the mound of dirt they'd excavated.

"Oh go fu-"

"Now, now kids. We're supposed to be on our best behaviour." John chastised them both. He looked up from where he was digging, and turned to look over at Rodney.

Rodney was red in the face and incredibly flustered, he was gesturing wildly towards Allina. Alice and John exchanged amused looks, before John turned to walk towards them. Alice watched for a couple of seconds, but she couldn't make out what they were saying from where she was, so she took in a deep breath and lifted her shovel.

"Major!" Ford called out before Alice could even put her shovel into the dirt.

"Tell me you found the stone." John said in relief.

"Not quite, sir, but I think McKay should take a look at this." Ford was staring down at his feet.

Alice, John, Teyla, Rodney and Allina all made their way over to Ford's position. There was a large grey stone with a symbol on it. "It carries the mark of the Brotherhood." Allina knelt down to brush the dust off the stone.

"The writing's in Ancient." John was tilting his head sideways looking at the text, he turned to Alice, "Can you read it?"

"It's a warning." Rodney muttered.

Alice nodded, she bent down to reveal a few more of the letters. "It says, "Only the Brotherhood of the Fifteen should enter the forbidden chamber—""

"Of the Quindosim." Allina finished her sentence.

"What chamber?" Teyla looked down at the ground around them.

They set up a tripod with a block and tackle, to move the cover stone. Once they'd shifted it to the side, Ford cracked a few glow sticks and threw them into the hole. Alice peered over edge, "So, who wants to go first? Seems sort of like a Sheppard thing?" Rodney pointed at John, who smiled reluctantly.

Alice and Ford lowered Teyla down into the chamber. John was already down there. After Teyla, they started lowering Rodney. "Oh. Easy, Ford! God." Rodney complained as they were lowering him.

"Maybe you should cut down on the pudding." Alice yelled back at him, grunting with effort as she held onto the rope.

"All right, he's down." John tugged on the rope lightly to signal to Ford and Alice.

"All right. we'll stay up here, keep an eye on the descender." Ford stepped forward to look at Sheppard.

"Stay sharp. I'll let you know if anything interesting happens." John sounded sarcastic, Alice could tell. She smirked slightly.

Alice paced around the edge of the excavated area, she kicked a few stones. "I can't wait to have an actual shower." Ford was unsticking his shirt from his chest.

"I mean, I wasn't going to say anything. But you reek Ford." Alice pinched her nose and laughed as Ford's grumpy expression.

"Like you smell any better!" he quipped back. Alice just shook her head, and resumed her pacing.

She heard a slight grunt, and looked over just in time to see Ford hit the ground. Alice raised her weapon and crouched down, just as she started making her way over to Ford she felt a small prick in her neck. She raised her hand up and ripped out a small dart. She wobbled slightly, but managed to crawl her way over to Ford. "Lieutenant..." her voice was weak.

"Captain Riley, always a pleasure." Alice struggled to raise her head, but she instantly recognised the voice. "Is he dead?" she watched as he approached Ford.

Alice moved her hand down to her P90, "we'll take that." one of his men kicked Alice's side causing her to crash down into the ground. He then proceeded to rip the P90 out of her hands.

"No, just unconscious. He will be like that for hours." the man who just took her gun replied to Kolya's previous question.

"Excellent. We'll wait for them to—" Alice watched as Ford sat up quickly, tripping the man closest to him and shooting the man near Alice. She watched as her P90 dropped from his arms, but one of the other men rushed forward kicking down hard on Alice's head pushing her face first into the dirt. She could just see Kolya holding his gun on Ford.

"Put the weapon down, Lieutenant Ford. Or we kill Captain Riley." Alice struggled against the heavy weight on the back of her neck, but whatever had been in those darts had weakened her significantly. She could feel her strength being sapped out from her.

"Riley? Ford?" She heard John call out from the hole. She watched the man in Ford's take advantage of the Ford's momentary distraction and weakened sense to elbowed him in the face, knocking him unconscious.

Alice snuffed, trying to blow the dust and dirt away from her face. "Major Sheppard. I'm afraid the Lieutenant has had to step away for a moment. The Captain, however, is hanging on your every word."

Alice forced her drooping eyes open, she couldn't afford to pass out now. The sticky heat and dirt were suffocating, making it hard for her to comprehend what was happening around her. She watched Koyla stand over the entrance to the chamber, pointing his gun down at the others below. The man shifted his weight slightly, allowing Alice to shift her face so she could take in a deep breath of cool air.

"I'm coming up" she heard Rodney yell out loudly to Kolya.

The rest of the men went to the hole to help pull Rodney out of the chamber. The man pinning Alice down lent down and grabbed a handful of her hair, roughly yanking her over to where Ford was lying unconscious.

She kept her jaw locked tight to stop her from calling out in pain. Kolya had stepped away, and was now staring directly at her. Alice tried not to flinch away as he slowly stalked towards her. Alice felt her heart beating hard and fast, this scene was causing her to remember the beating she took the last time she was in this position. "It looks like your wounds healed nicely." His voice sent chills down Alice's spin.

She stared at him definitely, with half her face plastered with dirt and the drug still coursing through her system, a glare was the best she could do. "Change of plans" Kolya stepped back turning to look at his men who were pulling Allina over the edge, "Captain Riley will be joining us too."

"That wasn't part of the deal!" Rodney squealed. He stood up from dusting the dirt of his pants.

"Kolya!" John shouted, "the deal was Ford and Riley were to be left here." Alice watched Kolya ponder for a moment. One of his men had come up to whisper something in his ear.

"The Captain is coming with us." Kolya said resolutely.

* * *

Alice trudged behind Rodney and Allina, her hands were tied behind her back and one of Kolya's men constantly had his gun trained on her as they headed towards the Stargate. Alice was struggling keeping her balance, she was still sluggish from the drug. Rodney had dropped back to support her, but it was difficult with her restrained hands.

They arrived at the Stargate, Alice felt the barrel of the soldier's gun press against the nape of her neck as he pushed down on her shoulders, causing her to collapse down onto her knees. Kolya circled them like a predator, then when Rodney didn't move he flicked out his hand and smashed his gun into the side of Alice's face. Alice couldn't help but cry out, her jaw throbbed and her whole body had fallen to the ground.

"Okay, okay. Just stop." Rodney moved forward and pulled out a piece of paper and began dialling.

Alice heard the familiar noise of the DHD activating and then the noise of it shutting down. "It's not working." There were traces if panic in his voice.

"Try it again." Kolya's voice remained low and threatening.

Rodney dialled it quickly again, with the same result "Look, I've tried it twice, backwards and forwards."

"We've played this game before, McKay. Try some other combinations of the same symbols." Kolya had his gun clasped in his folded hands.

"You joking? Do you have any idea how long that would take?" Rodney spluttered.

"He's right. There are 720 possible gate address." Alice glanced to her left to watch one of Kolya's men step up to the DHD next to Rodney.

"It's a waste of time." Rodney agreed defeatedly.

"You said the address was the location of the ninth stone." Kolya sounded unimpressed. Alice wasn't sure if he believed Rodney or not.

"Look, it has to be, but the puzzle is ten thousand years old. Maybe the gate doesn't exist anymore. Look, back in the Milky Way, some cultures actually bury their gates to render them useless." Rodney rattled on, Alice could tell he wasn't faking this.

"What about something else? What if these aren't Stargate symbols?" The soldier stretched his neck, trying to get a look at the paper Rodney had.

Rodney held up a rubbing of the tiles, "Look at them. What else would they be, huh?"

"Actually, these symbols may not be gate-related." Alice watched as Allina grabbed one of the papers edges. Alice's legs were started to cramp from kneeling, she hoped they figured this out quickly.

"Really? What are you thinking?" Rodney looked from her to the map eagerly.

* * *

Alice groaned as she was once again dragged through the forest, this time back to the old Brotherhood library. She was kept at the back of the room, on the opposite side to the map Rodney, Allina and Kolya were standing in front of. She was back on her knees, but she was feeling less groggy and could feel her strength starting to return. Whatever they'd hit her with it was definitely wearing off.

"You not important enough to be up with the boss then?" Alice smacked her lips together, tilting her head up slightly to stare at the soldier guarding her.

"Keep quiet." He grunted back to her, he had his eyes on Kolya and Rodney though.

Alice flexed her hands, gently as she could to see if she could manoeuvre the bindings off. They were tight, but whatever they'd wrapped her with felt improvised rather than proper rope. "Y'know Koyla seems like the type to get rid of things that expendable to him. You obviously couldn't be-" Alice was cut off by the man smashing the but of his gun into the top of her spine. She flinched and launched herself off to the side, making it look like the force of the blow caused it.

The commotion had caused Kolya and Rodney to look towards her, "what are you doing?" Kolya bent his neck to look down at Alice on the floor. "I need her alive."

He gestured to one of the soldiers next to him who came over and relieved the previous guard. "Keep her quiet." Kolya waved his hand and returned his attention back to Rodney and the map. Rodney cast Alice a sympathetic look.

Alice smirked as she allowed them to drag her up, though to her disgust the soldier knelt down and ripped off a part of her shirt. "Hey! What do you think-" her voice was muffled as the soldier pulled the material over her mouth gagging her.

Alice watched passively as Rodney set up some lasers and pointed them at the map. "Someone, give me a knife." Rodney sounded excited, Alice rolled her eyes as the soldiers looked at each other reluctantly, the fact they found Rodney threatening was laughable. Rodney dropped his hands down onto his legs, "You all have guns. Someone, give me a knife."

Kolya looked at him for a second, "All right."

Alice watched curiously as he dug into the map and pulled out the final piece, "We have all the pieces." He said triumphantly.

"Congratulations, Dr. McKay." Kolya took the piece out of Rodney's hand. "You and your team may live yet."

Kolya signalled his soldiers, they silently moved forward leading Rodney and Allina out past Alice. Rodney looked down at Alice as he passed her, his eyes were still wide with fear. Alice tried to give him a reassuring nod, but he'd already been pushed out of her sight. Alice expected the guard to pull her up next but instead he walked out behind Rodney, leaving Kolya alone with Alice. He shifted his weight forwards and backwards again. "Not matter what I do, Major Sheppard will no doubt try and stop me. You're here to make sure that doesn't happen." Alice stared at him confused.

Her mouth was still bound shut, he took another step forward. "We've been watching your team for some time now, we've seen how you and the Major act when you're alone." Alice's eyes widened, how long had they'd been watching them for. Kolya bent down so he could look her directly in the eye. "I don't think he could take you being broken down piece by piece. You keep him in line, or I break him. Physically, mentally and psychologically."

Alice couldn't breathe, this type of threat was exactly why they shouldn't be together. But it was too late now, he knew. Alice acted instinctively, she spun around kicking her legs out from under her, catching Kolya off guard. He fell back, she freed her hands and lunged for his gun.

Kolya was fast though, he'd already recovered and tightened his grip on the gun. Alice was panicking, if she didn't win this he would kill her in front of John, and she was sure it wouldn't be quick or painless. Kolya was able to move so he was on top of her back, he pulled his free arm up and around her neck. She choked as his arm tensed, cutting off her airway. She thrust her elbow back, catching him in the nose. She heard a satisfying crunch of it breaking, he shouted out in pain. But that was all it took, the sound caused the guards to come rushing back in.

They smashed her head into the ground, and another stomped down on her hands, causing her to let go of the gun. They dragged her up to her feat, Alice heart had dropped into her stomach, she'd lost.

Kolya smirked and tenderly touched his nose, "I expected nothing less." He gestured to his men, "get her moving."

Alice hadn't expected him to let her off that easy, an uneasy feeling settled over her. She knew she'd pay for breaking his nose. "Alice!" Rodney was struggling against his guard. "Are you okay?"

Alice's mouth was still bound so she simply nodded, before they shoved the group back towards the underground chamber.

* * *

Alice was lowered down into the chamber, she could see Teyla, John and Ford lined up with their hands on behind their heads. She gave John a small nod, she saw the corner of his mouth twitch. She had to let him know that Kolya knew about them, but there was no way she could.

The guards kept her separate from the others, as Rodney and Allina went to the pedestal. "I just assumed that we place the stones on the pedestal, have someone put their hands on the palm prints, and hopefully, we get the ZPM. The only question is, what order do we put the stones in?" Rodney had laid out the stones in front of him.

"I think it's pretty straightforward." The same man that had spoken up at the gate was stepping forward to look at the pedestal.

"Well, nothing's been straightforward yet. What makes you think this would be?" Rodney said with an exasperated expression.

"The last one is the only one with grooves that match the centre position." He pointed to the centre of the pedestal, Alice couldn't see the patterns on it yet.

"So?" Rodney questioned. The man and Rodney bickered a bit more about the placement.

"McKay. Stop stalling." Kolya stepped forward, clearly annoyed now.

"I'm not stalling. I just think we need to consider the fact—"

"Pranos, arrange the stones and retrieve the ZPM, please." Alice finally caught John's eye. She watched him stare at her and then slowly dragged his eyes down to the floor. She looked at him curiously, trying to keep her expression neutral. She followed his eye line to the floor, she couldn't see anything other than dirt. She looked back up to him, he just repeated the gesture again.

A metal snap brought both their attentions back to Pranos and the pedestal. Two metal bracelets had clamped down over his wrists holding him in place.

"Aah!" Pranos screamed, his body started thrashing wildly in pain.

"McKay." Kolya called out.

"What do you want me to do?" Rodney stood their helplessly watching Pranos convulse.

The clamps finally shut off, Pranos stopped convulsing. He looked down at his palms, "what's this?"

Everyone in the room just watched, frozen in shock as Pranos fell to the ground. Kolya moved to check his pulse, "he's dead. You knew this would happen."

"Yes. Yes, I did. In fact, I was in the middle of telling you as much when you ordered him to activate the pedestal. Look, you killed him, not me." Rodney stuttered.

"What's the correct order of the stones?" Koyla's voice was harsh.

"I'm not sure yet." Rodney looked helplessly at the pedestal and then back at Kolya.

"Well, you'll have five chances to get it right." He looked around at the five of them, letting his gaze linger on Alice and then John. "You go first." He pointed at Alice.

"No, I'll do it." John stepped forward, Alice internally groaned this was exactly what Kolya wanted.

"I don't think so Major. Bring her." Alice kept her eyes on John as she was pulled up and dragged to the pedestal, thankfully though they had enough mercy to remove her gag and hand bindings.

Alice rubbed her wrists and looked down at the tiles, then up to Rodney. "Any ideas?"

"I'm thinking, I'm thinking." Rodney picked up a couple of the tiles.

"So, one to nine was a no-go." Alice was thinking out loud, willing the answer to come to her.

"Thank you, yes." Rodney muttered impatiently.

"How about nine to one?" She offered.

"Possibly. Look, Pranos was right. The centre stone's the only one that locks into place. All the others must move around it. I'm just trying to think of a combination that make sense with five in the middle."

"15." Alice muttered, "It's got to have something to do with fifteen…or nine, or five"

"Shut up. Please? I'm trying to think." Rodney snapped at her.

"Rodney." She said sharply, "My life's at stake."

"Exactly, so simmer down, and let me save it!" Alice huffed went back to quietly studying the pieces.

Kolya stepped forward, tapping his gun impatiently. "Choose and go."

Rodney gave Alice a terrified look, "I got nothing."

"Fantastic..." Alice sighed.

"Nine to one. It's all I can think of." Alice nodded and started picking up the tiles.

"Alright. Out of the way." She gestured for him to step backwards.

"I'm sorry." he muttered apologetically.

Alice put the final piece down in the order, she hesitated over the palm molds.

"Captain. Now." Kolya stepped forward again.

Alice bit her lip, she looked over at John. He was staring at her wide eyed, he looked like he was itching to jump forward and take her spot. Alice turned back around and was just about to put her hands down on the molds.

"Stop. I got it!" Alice jumped as John's voice rang out in the chamber.

"What?" Rodney stared at John in awe.

"The Brotherhood of 15." John said simply. Both Alice and Rodney were staring at him in confusion.

"What about it?" Rodney was impatient now.

"The numbers one to nine can be put in a three-by-three grid so they add up to 15 in every direction." John looked at Kolya, who gave him a slight nod. Allowing him to move forward up to the pedestal. John snatched a couple of the tiles off the pedestal and moved Alice out of the way.

"Oh, you're right. How'd you know that?" Rodney moved past Alice and next to John.

"It was on a Mensa test." John muttered.

"You're a member of Mensa?" Rodney stared at him, his mouth dropping open in surprise.

"No, but I took the test." John started re-arranging the tiles. Alice watched in stunned silence.

Rodney joined in, muttering numbers to himself. "Okay, move aside." Alice stepped forward readying her palms to put them on the molds.

John shook his head, "no way, this way my idea, I'm doing this." He stepped forward, blocking her path.

Rodney stepped away. Alice held John's stare, "I'm doing this, now move." Alice tried to make her voice sound forceful. "John, please." she said in a lower voice, quiet enough just for him to hear.

"Riles, enough." John narrowed his eyes at her, then without hesitating turned and placed his hands in the indentations. Alice held her breath, she tensed and waited for the clamps to snap over his wrists. Alice jumped as a small snap sound echoed within the chamber, from the wall in front of them a stone had lifted up and revealed the ZPM. Alice and John both sighed in relief.

John looked back at Alice and the rest of his team, she watched John nod. Everything happened fast, Alice shut her eyes and clamped her hands over her ears, realising what John had been trying to communicate earlier.

After the initial blast, Alice rushed the soldier closest to her, jabbing him in the throat and twisting his arm up behind his back taking his gun and then shooting him. The dust was clearing, she could see Teyla and Ford taking on a couple of soldiers to her left and John was fighting Kolya. Rodney was stumbling around blindly behind her.

Alice aimed and fired at the Genii Ford was fighting, watching him collapse onto the ground. Ford looked up and nodded a quick thanks before moving to help Teyla. When Alice turned back around, John had Kolya at gunpoint.

"What the hell just happened?" Rodney was opening and closing his eyes dramatically.

"Are you okay?" John looked at Allina, who was next to Rodney looking stunned and staring wide-eyed off into the distance.

She seemed to regain part of her sense as John looked at her, "Yes. Thank you."

"Sorry, Rodney. I had no way of telling you what was coming." Though Alice could tell he was secretly enjoying watching Rodney stumble around.

"What, my eyes? I need my eyes for seeing!" Rodney complained.

John returned his attention back to Kolya. "Get the ZPM, Rodney." Alice kept her gun raised and aimed at Kolya.

Rodney muttered some more under his breath, but moved to remove the ZPM.

"All right. We're getting out of here." John glanced around the room, then back at Kolya. "We're going to send a villager to pick you up in about an hour."

"The smart thing would be to kill me now." Kolya goaded John.

John walked over and points a pistol at Kolya. "You're right. I tell you what— I'm going to want points for this in the future… But if you ever do this again I will kill you. Deal?"

Alice tensed, she didn't want to let Kolya leave this chamber alive. Not with what he knew about them. Ford had grabbed the rope and was climbing out of the chamber. Alice stepped forward next to John, "we shouldn't leave him alive..." she whispered to him, not taking her eyes of Kolya.

"Riles, that's not how we do things." John replied back.

"Yes Riles" Kolya sneered, "Listen to your commanding officer."

Alice bit back a retort, "go." John jerked his head towards the rope. Alice obeyed, casting a final glare at Kolya.

She walked over, holstering the gun in the waistband of her pants and gripped the rope. She watched John lean in towards Kolya. She couldn't make out was being said, but she saw Kolya smirk and laugh.

* * *

Alice exhaled as she stepped through the gate and back into the familiar gateroom. She'd be happy if she'd never go back to that planet or see Kolya's face ever again.

John and Rodney had gone to debrief Elizabeth, whilst Ford, Teyla and her were all heading down to the infirmary to get checked out.

"I told you Carson, I'm fine" Alice complained as she was put under the scanner for a second time.

"Listen missy, you were shot with an unknown drug. Who knows what the long terms effect of that could be." Carson sighed, the side of his datapad until Alice gave in and laid down on the bed.

"But I don't feel any effects of it now." Alice argued.

Carson just ignored her and started up the scanner, "well it doesn't look like it's left any residue in your body." Alice turned her head and raised her eyebrows at him, if it was anyone else she would have been telling them 'i told you so', but this was Carson and a look was all she needed. "Yes, yes. Well better to be safe than sorry isn't it?"

Alice sat up, smiling at Carson. "I appreciate it doc!"

Alice jumped down off the bed and grabbed her jacket off the table. Ford and Teyla were doing the same, as she began walking over to them she saw John walking across the infirmary towards them. He had a grim expression on his face.

Alice tugged on her jacket, straightening it out a bit. "How are you all?" John asked, his voice lacking any of its usual jovial tone.

"We've just been given the all clear, sir." Ford answered, giving John a cautious look.

Alice took in a hesitant breath, watching John's expression carefully "Is everything okay?"

John swallowed before looking directly at her, "three Wraith hive ships are headed for Atlantis..." Alice couldn't believe what she was hearing, "they'll be here in two weeks."

Alice started to tremble slightly, there was no way they could fend off three hive ships. Not without a ZPM.

No one had said anything, Ford was opening and closing his mouth. Teyla had wrapped her arms around her chest. John hadn't taken his eyes off Alice's face.

 **A/N Hope you enjoyed, we're getting close to the end of season 1 now!**

 **Thank you to everyone who has followed, favourited and reviewed this story so far, i really appreciate it!**

 **Also let me know what you think about a John POV chapter? Yes or no?**

 **See you soon!**


	9. Chapter 9

**A/N Hiya! As promised here's the next chapter.**

 **I'm currently working on a John POV chapter, but will most likely take place after the siege.**

* * *

"Well, we knew they were coming; at least now we know when." Elizabeth had her hands clasped together on the table, her whole body seemed tense. Alice was biting down on her lower lip, her leg was shaking furiously under the table.

"That's something." John tried to sound reassuring.

"That's something?!" Rodney shrieked.

"It means there's still time, Rodney - there's no reason to panic" John lent back in his chair in a relaxed position "... yet." Alice couldn't tell if John was just pretending to be this chilled or not, her muscles were so tense that they were beginning to cramp.

Teyla nodded in agreement, "Where there is time, there is hope."

"Agreed." Elizabeth stretched her fingers out, forcing herself to copy John's relaxed pose. "So, recommendations?"

"Other than panic?!" Carson babbled. Alice's mouth twitched, Carson and Rodney were almost the antithesis to John and Elizabeth's calm and collected nature.

"Other than panic, yes." Elizabeth gave him a stern look.

Alice watched silently as the team and Elizabeth went back and forward over a few ideas. "We could really use a phone a friend option for this problem..." Alice muttered under her breath.

"Wait..." Rodney's head snapped over to her, "what did you just say?"

Alice straightened up slightly, John had narrowed his eyes in a disapproving fashion, She sat up straighter and cleared her throat "it was just a snarky comment Rodney..."

Rodney started snapping his fingers, "I actually have an idea - in addition to panic."

John looked between Alice and Rodney, who's face had now lit up like a christmas tree, "Let's hear it."

"It's really a long shot, but I think it's, uh, most likely worth the effort. Of course, it will mostly be my effort, so ..." Rodney started to ramble. Alice slumped back in her chair again.

John rolled his eyes, "What is it?" He said sharply.

Grinning and ignoring John's tone, "I think we can send a message back to Earth through the Stargate."

Alice started at him in amazement, "Excuse me?!" Carson's shriek cut through the shocked silence.

Elizabeth shook her head slightly, "I thought we didn't have enough power."

Rodney tuttered as she was speaking, "Not to send a person, no. We'd never be able to maintain the wormhole long enough. But I think if we were able to tie together all of our power-generating capabilities, we might - and I emphasise might - be able to establish a wormhole long enough to send a message."

"How much time are we talking about?" John had lent forward now.

Rodney looked up thinking of the numbers in his head, "Well, approximately, uh, one point three seconds, give or take." He wiggled his palm up and down.

"That's not much time." Carson argued.

Ford looked excited, "Time enough to say, "S.O.S."!"

Rodney lent back crossing his arms over his chest and scoffed, "Don't be so analogue! One point three seconds is more than enough time to send a message if it's in the form of a high compression data burst. Now, I helped refine the encoding for the US Air Force a few years back. Colonel Carter should be able to, uh, decipher it on the other side."

"You're suggesting this now?" John accused.

Alice tuned out, she was lost in her own world. This could change everything, she started calculating the power requirements in her head. Alice blinked and everyone was suddenly leaving the room. Feeling slightly out of place she got up and moved to follow Rodney, he'd need her help with the compression formula - even if he didn't think so.

* * *

Rodney had reluctantly agreed to let her help, but he'd insisted she sit on the opposite side of the lab. He was currently reviewing his algorithms, muttering to himself. Whilst Alice was up at the whiteboard working on the next set of problems. She was trying to creating a work around to ensure the Atlantis system didn't abort the dialing sequence when it realised it didn't have enough power. Radek was helping her. "I think that's it" she murmured taking a step back to glance over her work. "What do you think?" She glanced at Radek.

He was chewing on the end of his whiteboard pen, reading through the numbers. "Yes, i think you're correct. This is very good." He tapped his pen on his chin and gave her an encouraging smile. "McKay, if you're happy with this we think we're ready for a test run."

Rodney nodded obliviously, "I'm sure it's fine." Alice huffed and smiled as Radek scrunched up his face and muttered something in Czech under his breath.

"Right, i'm going to report into Elizabeth. You two..." Rodney had stood up, grabbing his datapad off the table.

"We'll go to the Jumper bay and start preparing." Alice finished for him. Rodney smiled patronisingly and touched his finger to his nose.

"Sometimes I don't know how you don't shoot him." Radek whispered to Alice as they watched Rodney scamper out of the room.

Alice smiled, she grabbed her datapad. Radek, was stood waiting for her in the doorway. "Even if Rodney won't say it, your help lately has been invaluable." Radek used his index finger to awkwardly push his glasses up his nose.

"Thanks Radek, I really appreciate that." She smiled at him and they started walking towards the Jumper bay. "And Rodney has his own way of showing...his appreciation." Even as Alice said it she wasn't entirely convinced.

As they were walking through the corridors, they came across Ford carrying an armful of equipment. "Woah, what you got there?" Alice moved out of his way quickly.

Ford had a massive grin across his face, "just getting the stuff together to send those personal messages. You guys want to go first?"

Alice stepped backwards holding her hands up, "I'm good Ford. There's no one I want to send a message to." Ford cocked his head to the side.

Radek seemed quite enthusiastic, "We've got to set up for a quick test. But maybe after that?"

Ford's grinned faltered slightly, but his eyes were still bright. "No problem Doc. Aly, you sure?"

Alice stepped around Ford and walked backwards towards the Jumper bay, "really Ford."

* * *

Alice was laying underneath the pilot's seat in the cockpit, "try it now!"

"Still nothing!" She heard Radek yell back from the rear compartment.

She swore under her breath and started unplugging and resetting the connections on the panel.

"Okay, okay! We've got it"

Alice sighed in relief, she reached up grabbing the edge of the panel and pulled herself out from under the controls. "Thank goodness."

She grabbed her bottle of water and took a sip. "You guys ready?" Rodney walked up the ramp tapping on his datapad.

"You're kidding right?" Radek stared at him skeptically.

"Rodney, the jumper wasn't supposed to be used like this. We have to be careful or we could collapse the whole energy distribution network." Alice stood up and made her way into the rear compartment, putting her hands on her hips.

"Yes, yes of course. So, how long then? Cause I might've told Elizabeth you were ready." Alice gave him an incredulous look, raising her wrist up to check her watch.

"Give us 10 minutes to do some final safety checks." Rodney opened his mouth to argue, but Alice's frown caused him to close it again "it'll go quicker if you help." He quickly and nodded, plugging his tablet into the Jumper's controls.

Alice moved down to the control room to oversee the test, "okay Radek, we're ready here."

He confirmed and began the count down. Alice monitored the output levels, "looks good. No power build ups and no shorts." She smiled widely, this plan may actually work.

Elizabeth walked across from her office, "I'll take that look on your face as good news?"

"Yep, the first test has gone great." Alice chirped.

"Great!" Elizabeth returned her smile, she began to head back towards her office, but stopped next to Grodin's station. "Major Sheppard hasn't checked in yet has he?" Grodin just shook his head and Elizabeth nodded and resumed walking.

Alice shut down her programme and looked at Grodin, "the Major is offworld?"

"Yes, Teyla and him went to do some recon on the approaching hive ships." Grodin didn't look up from his station.

Alice stared blankly at the screen, she felt a cold chill of fear run up her spine and she felt slightly nauseous.

* * *

Alice was back down in Rodney's lab. She was supposed to be going over the data from their test earlier, but she couldn't help but worry about John and Teyla. They should have at least checked in by now, although as Rodney had pointed out when she'd voiced this they still weren't overdue. After all, Teyla knew people on the planet. Maybe they were just checking in on them too.

She had been thinking about Ford and his video project. She'd been reconsidering her initial reaction, every time someone mentioned Earth there was really only one thing that came to mind - the closest thing to family she had - Evan. She hadn't exactly left on good terms, she was ashamed of just running away rather than facing him cause he represented something she was terrified of. In light of the Wraith armada heading towards them, the reality had begun to set in that she may never step foot back on Earth again.

Alice rubbed her face and dragged her hands down stretching her skin slightly. To her the data looked fine, everything seemed to indicate that this would work. But she wanted to get a second opinion before she reported it to Elizabeth. Standing up she straightened her jacket and headed for Radek's lab.

She froze as she walked through the door, "Aly!" Ford called out. He'd just been about to pack up his camera from filming Radek's message.

"Hey Ford" Alice greeted him unenthusiastically.

"I was just about to come and find you, I know you said you didn't want to send a message." Ford turned his camera back on and started adjusting the settings, "but, come on, there's got to be someone."

Radek vacated the chair and gestured for Alice to take it. Alice stayed rooted to the spot, "Ford, I've got data to review."

Radek took a step towards her, "don't worry about that, I'll review that." Radek motioned for the datapad.

Alice bit her lip, looking between Ford and Radek. She sighed in defeat, "alright."

Ford grinned, and Alice handed the tablet to Radek, who then headed out of the lab.

"Sit down" Ford pointed to the seat again. Alice moved reluctantly over and took a seat. "So, who do you want to send this to?" Ford took out a clipboard and began scribbling.

"Um..." Alice fidgeted with her black jacket, "Major Evan Lorne."

Ford looked up from his clipboard smirking, "he's on SG11 right?"

Alice nodded she started fussing with her jacket uncomfortably, "hey Ford, would it be okay if i recorded this in private?"

"Sure Aly," Ford put down his clipboard and adjusted a few more things on his camera then handed her a small remote, "alright, press here when you're ready. I'll just be outside."

Alice took the remote and smiled at him gratefully. Once he left the room she took in a deep breath and pushed the button.

"Hi Evan," she began, shifting on her seat. "I know you probably don't want to hear from me" she paused. "But being here," she gestured to the room around her, "it's given me a bit of perspective and I just wanted to say how sorry I am for what happened, and for not telling you I was leaving."

Alice paused, biting down on her lip nervously, "You were right about me, about everything. And even though I know that, i'm still making the same mistakes." She sniffed, tears were building up in her eyes, "I really miss you, and I really regret just leaving like that."

She wiped her eyes quickly, "We might not have much time left here, things have gotten pretty bad." She laughed softly, "y'know another alien armada hell bent on our destruction and all that, nothing new." She smiled into the camera. "I really hope you can forgive me, I know I never said it but you mean so much to me and I really miss you." Alice let her words hang for a minute and whispered a goodbye before shutting down the camera.

Alice hung her head, she sniffled and scrunched her eyes shut. Refusing to let her emotions overwhelm her. She took in a few deep breaths, and once she felt like she had a handle on it lifted her head.

She pushed a few loose strands of hair behind her ears. And walked towards the door. "Thanks Ford." She out her hand on his shoulder as she walked out.

* * *

Alice didn't feel like going back to the lab straightaway. She just kept walking, looking around the labs and people mulling about. She eventually found herself on one of the upper balconies. "Hey" she whispered at the figure standing leaning on the railing.

"Oh hi lass" Carson replied halfheartedly. "What are you doing up here?"

Alice joined him at the railing, closing her eyes for a second to enjoy the sea breeze and the sound of the ocean. "I could ask you the same thing."

"Aye, just those letters to home... guess i'm feeling a little bit homesick." He chuckled softly and smiled at her.

"Same" Alice sighed. She lent closer to Carson and rested her head on his shoulder, "do you regret coming here?"

"No, not for a second." Alice could hear his voice vibrating through his chest, "where else could i get a view like this eh?" She felt Carson's head tilt down towards her, "so, who did you send your letter to?"

"Just an old friend, he's the closest thing to family I have back home." Alice stared out at the horizon, she tried not to think how this could be one of the last times she saw the city intact and peaceful.

* * *

Alice had spent a while with Carson talking about home and their letters, she could tell Carson was resisting the urge to ask about her relationship with Evan. But unlike Rodney, Ford or John, he respected her privacy.

Alice had said goodbye and headed back towards the control room. She wanted to see if Teyla and John had checked in at all.

She turned a corner and and smacked straight into John, who had just been leaving the jumper bay. "Hey!" She smiled at him, "you're okay!"

John had his hands on her shoulder to steady himself, "yeah! Though we brought home some company." John took his hands off her and flicked his head towards the group of villagers cautiously exiting the jumper bay with the medics at their side.

Alice raised her hand up to cover the smile growing on her face, "you're turning into a real softie y'know."

John's mouth twitched, "hey, don't go spreading that rumour. I've got a reputation to uphold." he crossed his arms across his chest. "I was actually coming to look for you, I wanted to say um...I should've said we were heading off-world." He murmured, touching her shoulder so they both moved out of the main path of the hallway.

"Don't worry about it, you didn't need to. i'm just glad you're both okay." She shrugged. A moments silence passed between them, "briefing?" She raised her brow when he hadn't said anything.

John nodded and stepped back, turning towards the control room. He looked slightly perplexed.

John sat down next to Rodney, leaving a space next to him whilst Alice took a seat next to Teyla, she whispered a quick hello and glad to she was safe as Elizabeth walked into the Conference Room and took the empty seat next to John.

"Are our guests comfortably settled in?"

"Yes." Teyla said gratefully.

Elizabeth nodded and smiled "Good. So tell me: how bad is it?" She turned to John.

John furrowed his eyebrows, "Bad. Each hive ship acts like a carrier group with cruisers and hundreds of Darts escorting it. Grodin's downloading the sensor readings right now." Alice's heart dropped down to her stomach.

Teyla lent forward. "I have never witnessed a culling that took so many."

"We saved a few - that's worth something." Both his and Teyla's expressions were grim and still had a shadow of horror cast over them as they thought back to the attack.

Elizabeth shivered slightly, "Rodney, Captain, are we ready to send our message?

"When you are." Rodney said quietly.

"OK." Elizabeth nodded to dismiss them.

Alice stood up and moved next to Rodney, "I'll get the equipment set up in the jumper bay." She wanted to speak to John, his expression during the briefing had unsettled her. But, Elizabeth had pulled him back into the room.

Alice slowly walked over to the control room, keeping her eye on the briefing room doors. A minute later she saw John exiting the room. He looked even more grim than before. "Major?" She said warily.

"Oh hey Riles, look now's not really the best time." John didn't stop moving and refused to meet her eye.

"Oh...okay." Alice looked down at her feet and stepped aside.

He sighed and ran his hands through his hair, "I'll come find you later." He said in a low voice then moved off down the hall.

Alice stood there a few moments longer, then shook her head and headed to the Jumper bay.

"Okay Rodney, we're ready when you are!" Alice tapped on her radio, giving a thumbs up to Radek.

"Alright, we're dialling." Alice crossed her fingers and scrunched up her eyes. A few sparks flew out of the main control panel.

Alice moved to check the status on the data pad. "Done! I think it worked." Rodney called out excitedly through the radio.

"Rodney, you're right in my ear." Alice chided, feeling a slight ringing in her ears after his loud voice.

"Sorry..." he mumbled back.

Alice smiled and exhaled loudly, "well, guess all we can do now is hope they got it."

Radek started unplugging his tablets from the control panels, "you did very well, we could definitely use your help on a few other projects we have going on."

Alice followed suit and started disconnection the Jumper's systems from the city's. "Come on Radek, I'm a soldier, not a scientist."

He gave her a disbelieving look and said something in Czech, but continued working.

"So, how about a celebratory drink? You up for it Rodney?" She stood up and shook herself out, she was stiff from having been sat down for so long.

"Sure, why not." Rodney replied.

She turned to look expectantly at Radek, he just shrugged and nodded. "Great" she tapped her radio again, "Ford, we're grabbing a drink to celebrate, want to join?"

"You know it!" Ford's cheery reply came almost instantly.

Alice laughed, "great, we'll meet you in the mess." Alice unplugged her tablet and did a quick final check, then headed out behind Radek towards the mess hall.

Alice lifted her glass, they'd met Teyla on the way and had invited her to join them as well. She'd been kind enough to provide some Athosian made alcohol.

"Here's to hope." Ford called out, Alice laughed and clinked her glass against everyone else's.

She took a small sip and cringed at the taste hitting the back of her throat. "This is pretty strong stuff" she choked out. "You may want to tell Halling to tone it down a little." Still coughing she laughed at Rodney and Radek's expressions as they carefully sniffed theirs.

"This is a delicacy amongst my people, you should feel honoured." She said proudly, raising her eyebrows at them.

Alice snickered as Rodney gave Teyla a dark look, he knew full well what she was doing, but he tensed his jaw and took a sip anyways. Probably afraid of the bashing Teyla would give him otherwise, Alice thought to herself.

"Smooth..." he choked out, spluttering across the table.

Everyone burst out laughing, Ford slapped him hard on the back. Rodney recovered slightly and raised his glass again, "to Atlantis."

Alice raised her glass, "Atlantis." They all spoke together. Alice downed the rest of her glass. "Hey, Teyla?" Alice wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, "you got anymore?"

Teyla smirked and nodded.

Rodney was face first down on the table, Radek had passed out under it and Teyla and Ford were currently having an arm wrestling match. "Come on Teyla! Fight the power!" Alice yelled standing up and jumping as both Ford and Teyla tensed, trying to better the other.

Sweat was starting to bead on Ford's forehead, his hand started to shake now as well. Teyla grinned and with an extra tense had Ford's arm flat on the table. Alice whooped and clinked glasses with her as they down yet another drink.

"I'm done!" Ford managed to slur out. Laying his head down on his arm.

"Aww come on Ford, didn't they teach you to drink better at the SGC?" Alice snarked, scooting her bum up so she was now sat on the table.

"I thought I heard some commotion." Elizabeth's voice came out of the darkness.

Rodney sat bolt upright, "I promise i'll get to it on Monday!" Then once again face planted into the table.

Everyone stared at him bewildered for a second, then laughed. "I think it might be time to take Dr. Mckay to his quarters." Elizabeth said, looking at Ford and Alice.

"Um yes Ma'am." Ford mumbled, standing up and stretching slightly.

Alice slipped off the table and landed with a thump. "Night Teyla!" She pulled Rodney's arm up and over her shoulder and Ford did the same with the other arm.

"Goodnight both of you." Teyla nodded and Elizabeth said a goodbye as well.

Alice huffed with exertion "Rodney should really consider going on a diet."

Ford laughed, "i'd love to be there when you say that to his conscious face."

They dragged Rodney around the corner and finally came to his door. Alice swiped her hand over the controls and moved inside the room.

Unceremoniously they both let go and let Rodney flop onto his bed. He made a groaning noise then started to snore.

Alice shook her head, taking a quick glance around the room. "Wow he's a lot tidier than i thought."

Ford agreed and they headed out the door. "Night Ford...woah..." Alice swayed slightly as they came back out into the light of the hall.

"You alright Aly?" His voice was laced with humour.

"Yeah, yeah. I'll see you in the morning." She turned and slowly started walking down the hall, keeping her arm stretched out to touch the wall, "maybe late afternoon!" She yelled over her shoulder.

She stumbled down the hallway further, when the sound of a door opening startled her causing her to fall back into a sitting position on the floor.

John stood looking down at her with his hands on his hips. "What the..."

"Oh hi John!" Alice grinned playfully at him.

"Riles, what are you doing?"

Alice looked back down the hall, "we were celebrating..."

John sighed and lent down to pull her up. "Come on." He wrapped his arm around her waist and pulled her close to him.

"Why are you so grumpy?" Alice poked at the edge of his mouth, which was pulled into a tight line.

"I am not." He frowned at her, which just made Alice giggle.

"You just don't smile much anymore." Alice huffed. She felt John's grip on her tighten as she pulled away from him. "I like it when you smile."

"Riles..." John stopped, Alice refused to look away though. "Let's just get you into bed, okay?"

Alice heard a door slide open and then stepped through into a dark room. John led her over to the bed and pulled the blanket back. Alice plonked herself down onto the bed, but kept her gaze trained on John.

"Y'know you're more than welcome to join me." Alice sighed and kicked off her shoes, tugging on his arm and laying back in bed.

John knelt down and pulled the blanket up over her, "goodnight Riles." The last thing she remembered was the soft feeling of his lips on her forehead.

* * *

The next week went faster than she'd wanted it to, she'd joined countless teams to help scout out a potential alpha site. It was crazy as soon as she was back from one mission, she was sent out on another with a different team.

Then if she wasn't on a mission, Rodney had her checking some system or testing some theory of his. She'd barely found time to sleep amongst all this and she'd barely seen John.

Tonight, she was sat across from Rodney in his lab. He was running through any and all potential scenarios of getting the control chair running. "The jumpers just can't supply that kind of power, we'd have to connect them in series and if it didn't work we'd lose all of them..." Alice pointed at her screen.

Rodney squinted at his screen then nodded reluctantly. He took a sip of his coffee.

"Rodney, it's 3am. Can we call it a night?" Alice jutted out her bottom lip, pouting at him. "I've got be up and on a mission in like 4 hours."

Rodney sucked on his teeth looking from her to his screen, finally sighing "fine, but when you get back-"

"I'll be here" she answered him, jumping up out of her seat and quickly heading for her quarters before he could change his mind.

She'd managed to get a few hours of sleep, but she felt awful as stumbled through the hall. Gearing up as she went, she was running late for her mission and they'd be soon leaving without her.

"Woah slow down Riles." John jumped out of her way as she sped past. He was in his gym kit and headed towards the sparring room.

"Sorry!" She yelled over her shoulder, not stopping to talk to him. She still felt awkward around him, she hadn't had time to think about their situation and given everything that was going on it seemed a bit too trivial to focus on.

Alice arrived in the gateroom, mumbling an apology to the team of marines gathered there.

"Alright, are you ready to move out?" Elizabeth was leaning over the railing looking at the team.

"Yep, we're good to go!" Alice waved at Elizabeth, who turned to nod at Grodin.

The gate started dialling, "remember to be back for the briefing at 1500." Elizabeth called just before the gate activated.

"Don't worry, I'm always on time!" Alice grinned and gestured to her team, "let's move out." She raised her gun and stepped through the gate.

* * *

Alice was covered head to toe in mud, she stepped back through the gate with her face stuck in a sneer.

"Oh my..." Alice heard Elizabeth's voice echo around the room, she was standing up on the balcony, but headed down to the gate as she saw them. "What happened?"

Alice took in a small breath, trying not to let the smell enter her nose. "Well, Lloyd here thought it would be a great idea to walk off into an ancient mud pit." Alice glared at Lloyd who was also dripping mud on the floor.

Alice rubbed her temples, "so long as we keep to the immediate gate area for the evacuation, and not" she glared at Lloyd again, "go diving in any mud" She looked at Elizabeth, "it's a perfect alpha site."

Elizabeth nodded, "alright, get yourselves cleaned up and we'll start the briefing when you're ready Captain."

Alice nodded and started moving with her team towards the armoury. "Um...try not to get that everywhere." Elizabeth grinned as she watched them leave.

Alice trudged down the hall, her boots were full of mud and the feeling of mud squelching around her feet was awful. Alice kept her head down as she squelched down the hall, when she heard the last two voices she wanted to right now.

"Yes sir, i'll make sur- oh my god!" Ford's shrill laugh echoed past her.

Alice cringed away, wishing to just disappear into the wall. "Don't even..." Alice growled at him.

Alice was slightly thankful that her blush was being concealed by the mud on her face.

"Wha..." John's voice faltered, he cleared his throat. "What happened to you?"

He had his hand up around his mouth, Alice could tell he was trying to hold in his laughter.

Alice took a step forward, raising her chin up. "I swear you laugh or joke about this ever, you'll only wish you were drenched in mud."

Ford's chest was rising up and down quickly and he snorted. Alice glared at him.

"Sorry Aly, it's hard to take you seriously when you look like a drowned muddy rat." Ford bellowed with laughter.

Alice ran her hand down her chest gathering a handful of slimy mud and launched it at Ford's face, "there now we match" she said sweetly.

John laughed, "you did deserve that. Go get cleaned up."

Ford looked incredulously at Alice, then at John. "Yes sir." He muttered quietly, "I'll get you back!" He hissed as he walked past Alice. Alice stuck her tongue out as he went past.

John stepped forward and looked Alice up and down closely, "y'know if you need any help getting that off..." he raised his eyebrow. Alice stopped breathing for a second, John's face was close to hers. Her mind started wondering to the nights they used to spend together.

Alice snapped back quickly though, "you wish." She winked and stepped past him, she shook her head slightly as she walked off. She wasn't sure how to react really, John and her had been passing like awkward ships in the night for the past week, so she wasn't sure where this had come from.

* * *

Alice stood at the back of the room listening to Elizabeth. "According to Doctor Zelenka's calculations, we have less than one week before the Wraith arrive. I want options." She opened her hands out wide to the room.

"You mean, besides crying ourselves to sleep." Rodney snarked. Alice would've bashed him if she was close enough, but someone must've done something. "Well, not me! I haven't slept in days."

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows, "And what do you have to show for your sleepless nights, Rodney?"

"Well, we've uncovered a number of defensive weapons systems beyond the shield. Wh..."

"We think our best option is the control chair." Radek interjected.

"I was gonna say that." Rodney squeaked.

"Yes, but you were taking too long as usual." Alice rolled her eyes as the two of them started bickering, she'd heard more than her fair share of it over the past week.

She started gazing around the room, her eyes fell on John who was staring in amusement at Rodney and Radek. But as if sensing her gaze, looked up into her eyes.

"Captain Riley, Sergeant Bates: where are we with our Alpha site?" Elizabeth's voice snapped her back to reality.

Alice looked blankly at Elizabeth, tearing her gaze off John "uh...yeah we're um ready..." she stammered.

Bates shook his head at her "We've completed the ground and aerial security sweep and are ready to begin establishing base camp. We're just awaiting final inspection by Major Sheppard."

John smiled, "Right after lunch." Alice mimicked him, shooting him a glare. She couldn't believe she froze up like that.

"Good. Teyla: are the Athosians getting prepared for an evacuation?"

Alice was silently berating herself, John's comment earlier had taken her off-guard. But watched in surprise as Teyla snapped at Elizabeth.

Kavanagh interrupted the conversation. "Oh, please! We can't possibly consider staying and fighting."

"I disagree." John straightened up, "I think it's entirely within the realm of possibility." Alice smirked watching Kavanagh's temper flare.

"There are tens of thousands of life-sucking aliens in highly advanced spaceships on their way here to destroy us, and we have - what? - two hundred people, most of whom are scientists who've never even fired a gun before." Kavanagh scoffed.

Rodney pointed hesitantly towards Kavanagh, "Shockingly, first time ever I've found myself having to agree with Kavanagh."

"All I'm saying is, let's not give up" John raised his eyebrow at Rodney "- just yet."

Rodney scoffed, "Now what was that we were supposed to all remember? It was something important ... uh, oh yes, that's right - the Alamo!" Alice rolled her eyes, she lent back against the wall crossing her arms over her chest.

Alice could see John's face tighten, she could tell he was trying not to smile, "Granted you guys are scientists. No-one's considering putting you guys on the front line, but science can turn the tide of war. Look at the ... A bomb."

"Not exactly our proudest moment." Radek mumbled.

"We're doing our best to find a work around for the chair." Alice decided to speak up.

Elizabeth waved her arms out in front of her, "the fact is, the Wraith aren't here quite yet, and until that moment I would like everyone to remain focused on what it is they do best. Like I said off the top, if there are any options, I want them. That's all."

Alice nodded in agreement, watching the group file out in an orderly fashion. Rodney was talking in a hushed tone to Radek, from Alice's perspective it looked like they were arguing.

Alice closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead. She felt dead on her feet, "do you want to get some lunch?" Alice opened her eyes to see John standing in front of her.

"Actually-" before she could finish a massive yawn shook her body. "Sleep" she mumbled.

John chuckled, "go to bed. Don't worry about joining the final scouting to the alpha site, I'll cover for you." John winked and patted her on the shoulder, "go on Riles."

Alice smiled and bit down on her lower lip, as she watched him jog to the ready room. She was starting to doubt her decision to take a break away from him, she couldn't ignore the fact her feelings for him weren't fading like she'd hoped they would. If anything actually, she was starting to develop an ache in her chest when she thought about him. She blinked a couple of time, coming back to her senses. She glanced around to see if anyone had noticed her slight daze, then bowed her head and headed back to her quarters.

* * *

When Alice woke up it was almost night, she stretched out blinking in the darkness. She wrapped the blanket around herself tighter. "Captain Riley, please report to the control room." The intercom sounded throughout her room.

Alice sat up yawning and grabbed her clothes she'd discarded earlier off the floor. She quickly tied her hair up and headed out the door.

"What's going on?" Alice jumped up the final step to see the rest of her team gathered around the main display.

"We're going to go check out an alien planet, Teyla thinks it might have a connection to why she's struggling to sleep." John explained, only briefly taking his eyes off the screen to look at her.

Alice looked at Teyla in surprise, concern and exhaustion were clear on her face. She couldn't believe she hadn't noticed this was going on. "Okay, when do go?"

Lightning and thunder crackled around them. Alice crinkled her nose and looked up at the darkening sky, it was only a matter of time before the storm broke over their heads. She pointed her torch around her immediate area, the team were wandering around the ruins of a village.

Alice was standing next to Teyla, who had bent down to pick up something from the ground. "Sorry i've not been around much." Alice knelt down beside her.

"Do not worry Alice. We have all been rather preoccupied." She smiled gently at Alice and straightened back up.

Alice returned the smile and resumed looking around. Rodney walked past her with his scanner, it was starting to beep. "You got something?" Alice followed him.

"Rodney?" John walked over to them.

Rodney waved his hand over a section of the wall "I've got something here."

"Really?" Ford sounded especially surprised.

"I dunno. I've got a little ..." he trailed off and walked closer to a section of the wall.

Ford cracked a huge grin, "You've got a little what?" He nudged Alice on the shoulder, "Hey, McKay, you've got a little what?!" Alice rolled her eyes and John shot him a look "What?" Alice shook her head and walked off moving towards Rodney, "Oh, it's OK when you guys make fun of me!"

Alice ran her torch over the exposed rock, looking for any signs of what Rodney was detecting.

Rodney was pacing back and forward, "I'm getting a faint energy signal. Getting stronger." He paused, "Coming from here."

"There's nothing here." Ford was standing a few paces back from them. John and Teyla were closer and started searching the wall.

Rodney shot a snarky look at Ford, waving the Ancient device up, "Well, the magic Ancient device hasn't lied yet."

John tapped the wall with his gun, "It's solid."

Alice ignored the boys and took another step closer to Teyla, "you sensing anything?"

Before Teyla could answer, she touched part of the wall and disappeared. Alice jumped back, "Teyla!" She ran her hands over the section of wall Teyla had just been touching.

"Teyla!" John ran over to her, he started grabbing the wall too, "Teyla?!"

"Maybe she got a good running start - you know, really slam into it." Both Alice and John turned to give Rodney a dark look. Sometimes Rodney's timing was just terrible.

John turned to the wall again and reached out to touch it but the wall suddenly vanished. Teyla, appeared on the other side one of her hands raised as if she has just touched the wall.

Alice had instinctively raised her gun. "Teyla?"

"How'd you do that?" John was stood back warily.

"I do not know - I was just looking for a way out." She looked at her hands and then the entrance around her.

Alice turned up the brightness on her torch and followed John and Rodney inside.

* * *

"Right, we need to start organising the essential equipment, make sure the scientists know what 'essential' means as well." Alice was leaning against a desk, Bates was on the other side with Lloyd who was taking notes. "Oh and we need to start packing up all the Jumpers, Sheppard wants to bring as many of them as we can."

Bates nodded, "we'll round up those who have the gene and passed the Major's flight approval."

"Great," Alice pushed herself off the desk. "Let's get going then."

Bates and Lloyd nodded and began chatting quietly about what to do first. Alice grabbed her datapad off the table and started to head to the Jumper bay. A few of the Jumpers had been damaged recently, so she needed to check out how likely it was they'd be able to be fixed.

"Alice? Could you come down to the chair room please?" Radek called to her through the radio.

"Sure, I'll be down in 5."

Alice ran down the last flight of stairs, "Elizabeth!" She called out as she saw her walking a few steps in front of her.

"Riley!" She turned and slowed to allow her to catch up. "Are you heading to see Rodney?"

Alice nodded, "They need me to look at something apparently." She shrugged, turning the corner and seeing Carson sitting in the chair with Radek and Rodney fussing over him.

"Gentlemen, how's it coming?" Elizabeth put her clipboard down to her side.

Radek and Rodney sighed, "Well, not good!"

Elizabeth bit down on her lip, "Well, I'm sorry, but this won't help. Carson, I need you."

Relief flooded through Carson's face "Oh, thank God!" He was out the chair in a flash and by their side.

"Yeah, but we're using him!"

Concern suddenly crossed Carson's face "What is it? Is someone hurt?"

Elizabeth smiled excitedly, her eyes wide "You were right."

"Lovely!" Carson looked extremely satisfied with himself, then turned to Elizabeth confused, "About what?"

"Your theory of the Wraith evolving after the Ancients arrived in Pegasus galaxy ..."

Carson smiled, obviously delighted that he was right. Rodney rolled his eyes and folded his arms in disgust. "Oh, you're kidding me!"

Radek held out his hand to Rodney triumphantly, "Pay up."

"You owe me too!" Alice waved.

"You bet on me?" Carson raised his eyebrow at her.

"Course! I'd never bet against you doc." Alice smiled and went over to lean on Rodney's shoulder. Alice poked his cheek, she could tell he was absolutely seething.

Carson laughed softly, then turned back to Elizabeth, "How d'you know?"

"The Wraith language - it's a derivative of Ancient."

Rodney flicked Alice's arm off his shoulder, "Well, that doesn't categorically mean ..."

"Rodney, please." She held up her hand to stop him, "That's not why I need to see you. I've been able to translate the first part of the log from the Wraith data device."

Alice raised her eyebrows intrigued, but they both headed out the door, lost in their own little world.

"So, what were you so stuck with that you needed me?" Alice clapped her hands together and looked between Radek and Rodney.

Rodney shot her an irritated look, "what? We didn't call you."

"Uhh...actually." Radek started softly.

Rodney's face looked incredulous, "we're fine!"

Radek cringed, "we could really use an extra pair of hands."

"Come on Rodney! I've got lots to do, so do you need me or not?" Alice put her hands on her hip and looked at him expectantly.

"Fine!" He threw his hands up in the air, "we need someone to sit in the chair anyways."

"Great! Finally an excuse to put my feet up." Alice jumped into the chair and activated it.

Rodney groaned at her and went back to looking at his datapad.

Alice eventually ended up dozing off, Radek had to keep nudging her as her subconscious mind started bringing up random systems and displays.

"Right, we're done for now." Rodney rubbed his forehead.

Alice stretched, "no luck then?"

Rodney just shook his head. Alice stood up and placed her hand on his shoulder, "hey, we'll make it through this." She caught a glance of the time on her watch, "oh damn, i need to go." Alice cursed to herself as she bolted out of the room, she was meant to be meeting Bates and Lloyd to check the progress of the alpha site.

* * *

"Let's get this set up over here!" Alice pointed to a spot near one of the emergency shelter's they'd created. She was off-world on the alpha site, so far they'd only managed to set up a few tents and begin mapping out safe zones. "Lt?" she called to one of the security detail Bates had assigned.

"Captain?"

"Lieutenant, I need you to go back to Atlantis and get them to start prepping a couple of extra emergency supplies. Tell Major Sheppard it's going to be dark here soon and we need more time before we can get the generators up and running."

The lieutenant nodded and headed off towards the gate. Alice rubbed her temples, "we've got an hour of light left people. So we need to get this equipment either set up or out of the way."

* * *

They'd managed to get a generator tied into the temporary power system, so at least they had light and heat. Alice was sat in the tent looking over the schedule and security recommendation Bates had given her. They'd not had much time to explore the planet they were now setting up on - apart from the ancient mud pits. The database had mentioned that whilst there was no intelligent life, it seemed perfectly able to sustain life.

Alice had sent out a few patrols to search the nearby vicinity, assess any potential threats and report back. Alice sighed, her main objective at the moment was to secure a large enough space near the Stargate and then begin transferring equipment and personnel from Atlantis.

Alice had her feet up on the table, Bates' report was extremely thorough. Alice felt a low rumble vibrate through the ground, startled she sat bolt upright and stared out into the night. There didn't seem to be anything nearby, but suddenly the darkness exploded into an electric blue light as an energy bolt struck the planet. Alice grabbed her radio, "Wraith! Everyone head to the gate!"

Alice ran to the other side of the tent and started unpacking the P90's out of their storage crate. She could hear the high pitched noises of the darts flying overhead. Her fingers fumbled as she tried to load the gun. She ran outside, quickly joining up with Bates' and his security teams. "They came out of nowhere," Bates shouted over the nearby explosions.

Alice opened fire on a dart heading towards them, "dial the gate!" she yelled into her radio. She saw Bates' run over to the DHD and begin dialling, movement on her left caught her eye and she saw a Wraith soldier aiming his stunner at Bates. Twisting she unloaded the rest of her clip into him, getting him square in the chest.

The gate opened and Alice nodded to her team, together they moved in formation backing up towards the gate. Alice could see Bates out of the corner of her eye activating his radio, "This is Sergeant Bates. Code Red! We're under attack - we're coming in hot!"

Bates nodded, Alice tapped the marine closest to her on the shoulder "move, move!"

Alice continued to fire into the trees, as they made a break for the gate. Alice ran full speed into the gateroom, spinning around quickly to aim her gun back at the open wormhole. Bates was the last one through, Alice ducked as Wraith blasts came flying through the gate. "That's it - we're clear!"

John's voice came from behind her, "Raise the shield!"

The shield activated, shutting the gate down.

Alice dropped her gun, "Is everybody OK?" Elizabeth was leaning over the balcony looking down at them.

Alice did a quick headcount at the team gathered in front of the gate. "We're all here."

"I guess that planet isn't safe any more!" Alice shot John a look, now wasn't really the time for joking around.

"They showed up by ship and dropped some sort of device by the Gate as we were leaving." Bates explained, his voice tense and angry.

"I've seen it before - they're tagging the planet." John nodded solemnly.

"Basically, if we're gonna evacuate Atlantis, we're gonna need a new place to go." Alice flicked a piece of dirt off her face.

Elizabeth ran down the steps to join them,"That planet was supposed to be uninhabited. What do the Wraith want with it?"

Bates, obviously frustrated threw up his hands, "I don't know! It's almost like they knew we were there!"

Alice watched suspiciously as John and Elizabeth look at each other their expressions guilty and tense.

Alice was stood by the door of the conference room, John and Elizabeth had just explained the situation to her and Sergeant Bates.

"If what you're saying is true, then chances are it was Teyla who gave away the location of our Alpha site to the Wraith!" Bates was furious, Alice was still trying to wrap her head around the fact Teyla was part-Wraith.

"I don't think there was time." John frowned.

"You don't know that they didn't have a ship in the general area." Bates's face was starting to go red.

"But a Wraith did have access and control of her mind." Alice argued wrinkling her nose. John shot her a icy glare, she shrugged in response.

"Look, I admit, in retrospect, asking Teyla to connect with the Wraith may have been a mistake." Elizabeth narrowed her eyes.

"With all due respect, I don't think there's much doubt about that!" Bates raised his voice and pursed his lips.

"Take it easy, Sergeant, it's not like she wilfully gave away our position." John straightened up to his full height, and looked down at Bates.

Alice turned as the doors slide open and Ford walked in. He nodded in greeting to Alice, he was chewing on his lips "She wants to try again. Look, she says she was getting close to something big - something she's convinced we need to know."

Elizabeth crossed her arms and shook her head, "No, I'm sorry. The problem is, I'm not sure Teyla's thinking what's best for herself."

"Or that she could compromise us further!" Bates scowled.

"At this point, we have more to gain from the Wraith than they do from us." John countered.

"She wants to do it. Fact is, there may not be anything we can do to stop her from trying. So isn't it better if we're all there?" Ford cocked an eyebrow.

Alice started biting her nails, "Though we should at the very least keep Teyla away from all sensitive materials until we know she's got a handle on this." John and Elizabeth nodded in agreement.

Alice stepped out of the conference room, "Riles. A minute please?"

Alice hesitated, shifting her weight from one foot to the other, "Yes sir?"

John was frowning, "I can't believe you sided with Bates." He hissed lowly.

Alice placed her arms behind her back, straightening up, "I'm sorry" she glanced around at the others around them "you know I trust Teyla with my life. But you have to admit there is no other way they could have found out about our alpha site."

John cringed, "i guess."

Alice game him a hollow smile, "let's just hope that's all they got from her mind. Now" she sighed, "I've got to find a new alpha site." She raised her eyebrows and sighed, giving him a slightly annoyed look.

* * *

Alice was staring at the screen, she was reviewing the map Teyla had drawn showing the path of the incoming hive ships. The threat and reality of their situation was starting to affect the members of the expedition. People were scared, and Alice couldn't blame them, she was attempting to bury her feelings and was only succeeding due to her military training.

Alice rubbed her eyes, she was in Rodney's lab, she felt like time was stuck on a loop. Once again, she spent her morning's scouting planets and the evenings locked away in Rodney's lab. Tonight, Rodney was mumbling to himself and running various simulations on his screen. It obviously wasn't going well as he was glaring at his laptop.

Alice was once again looking at potential ways to power the shield. Unfortunately for them a big storm was due for at least another 30 years. And as far as Alice could tell, there was no way even using a mixture of naquadah generators and Jumpers would be able to power it.

"Rodney! Alice!" Radek and Teyla came sprinting into the room carrying his datapad.

Alice picked up her mug and walked over to where he was setting up, connecting his table into one of the Ancient screens. "What is it?" Rodney asked impatiently.

"The Ancient satellite" he said breathlessly.

Teyla lent on the desk, her face was lit up "The Wraith are going to go straight past it."

"The satellite is dead though." Alice slowly sipped her coffee.

Radek shook his head, "i think we can power it up again."

Rodney scoffed "perhaps, but-" he trailed off as he stared at the formulas Radek had put up on the screen. "Oh..."

Alice blinked a few times, the numbers made no sense to her. Radek and Rodney were both silently staring at the screen. "Does someone want to tell me what this means?"

* * *

"Not only has Teyla been able to ascertain that the Wraith are more interested in Earth than Atlantis, which is ... you know, terrifying," Rodney stood in front of the briefing room screen, with Radek and Alice next to him. "she realised that the hive ships will go right past the only surviving LaGrange point satellite."

"The last of what we assume were dozens of defence satellites destroyed during the Ancients' last stand with the Wraith." Radek pointed to the map on the screen, highlighting multiple dots on the screen.

Rodney looked annoyed at being interrupted, "Yes, yes, yes - the point is, we think we can use it to our advantage."

"I thought you said it was dead." John was sat in the front, his face was scrunched up.

"It is, but we think we've learned enough about how it works to bring it back." Rodney was smiling.

"If we are right about what is wrong with it." Alice commented, raising her eyebrows at Rodney. She was concerned he was giving the group a bit too much hope in the project.

"Yes, of course if we're right about what's wrong with it! But if we're right, and it's just out of power, the Wraith have simply been ignoring it." Rodney argued.

Radek stepped forward, in between Rodney and Alice, "Our preliminary estimates indicate a single naquadah generator would be enough to bring it back online."

"Why can't we use our generators to get the weapons systems of Atlantis working?" Ford scratched his face.

"Because those systems were designed to be powered by the Zero Point Module" Radek explained, though Alice could tell this didn't quite mean much to him. " - and the satellite isn't."

Before Ford could press the question, John lent forward, "And you think it's powerful enough to take out a Wraith hive ship?"

Alice was now smiling, "well according to the Ancient database, we should be able to blast all three of them out of the sky."

Rodney grinned and bounced on his feet, "Keep in mind that the Ancient technology was far superior - they only lost the war because they were vastly outnumbered."

John shook his head, "Well, we're vastly outnumbered!"

"And outgunned!" Bates added.

"But they don't see the satellite as threat." Radek looked just as excited as Rodney.

"In military parlance, surprise..." Rodney faltered slightly "is an element on our side." Alice scrunched up her face and scratched her head in awkward embarrassment.

"What do you need?" Elizabeth questioned. She looked pleased and hopeful with their plan.

"The satellite's fifteen hours away by Puddle Jumper. I recommend that we put together a small crew - say myself, Grodin and a pilot. Say Alice." Rodney pointed to each of them in turn. Alice turned to look at him in surprise, he hadn't mentioned to her before the meeting he wanted her to go.

"No, I'll go." John had a tight-lipped smile, and had his eyes on Alice.

Elizabeth stood up, "No, Miller can handle it. Major, I need you and the Captain to keep searching for alternate Alpha sites, just in case this fails."

Rodney clicked a button on his laptop bringing up a countdown and a map of the hive ships path, "The hive ships will be in range of the satellite in forty-nine hours. We're gonna need every last second of that time."

Elizabeth looked around the room, "Questions?" No one moved or said anything "OK, let's get on it." The meeting broke up and people started to leave the room, Alice started grabbing her things. "Well, Rodney, I don't mean to put any undue pressure, but at this moment, that satellite is the only thing standing between the Wraith and Atlantis."

She walked away. John stood up and placed his hand on Rodney's shoulder as he walked passed, "No undue pressure!"

* * *

Alice knocked on the side of the Jumper's ramp, "you heading out?"

Rodney and Grodin were unloading a trolley into the storage racks, Miller was sat in the cockpit going through his pre-flight check. "Yeah, we're just about ready." Rodney paused what he was doing and looked from the trolley to the storage racks.

Alice grabbed Rodney's shoulder and led him out of the Jumper, "Rodney, listen. Don't try to be a hero okay?" Rodney opened his mouth to speak, looking smug. "Nah ah! Just listen." Alice scolded him. "If you can't get the power connected, get out of there as fast as you can!" Alice narrowed her eyes and gave him a serious stare.

Rodney swallowed, "Let's just hope that it goes fine."

Alice bit down on her lip and grabbed Rodney by the shoulders and pulled him into a hug, "just come home safe okay?" she whispered into his ear.

Rodney kept his hands by his side, and awkwardly patted her back, "okay" he squeaked.

Alice let go and stepped back, she craned her neck to look inside the Jumper "Good luck guys!"

* * *

Elizabeth, John, Alice and Bates were all sitting at a table with a laptop in front of each of them. On the big screen was a list of potential planets for the new Alpha site.

"M85-393?" Bates looked up.

John clicked his tongue, "No. We've only been there at night and it gets ridiculously hot during the day, so no - not really an option."

Elizabeth huffed and put her head into her hands, "We wouldn't be having this problem if the damn Alpha site that we'd picked hadn't been marked by the Wraith."

John smirked, "They're a real pain in the ass, aren't they?!" Elizabeth nodded in agreement, "How about M4H-212?"

Bates shook his head this time, "No - crawling with Genii spies."

John cocked an eyebrow "You know that for a fact, Sergeant, or is your spidey sense just tingling?"

Bates smiled back at him, "It's a fact, sir."

Alice stretched, and scrolled through her list of potential planets, "Here we go: M1M-316. Stackhouse reported lush surroundings, and as far as his team could tell, it seemed uninhabited."

John stood up, "I'll get my team together and check it out." He nodded and gestured to Alice. She closed her laptop and grabbed her jacket off the back of her chair.

"OK, good. Remember, Major, we don't need ideal. I think we'd all settle for close."

"We're on it." Alice and John both left the room, "Riles head to the armoury and grab Ford, I'll go tell Teyla."

"Sure thing!" She pivoted and jogged down the stairs, happy to be keeping her mind off the impending threat.

* * *

"Come on Riles! Get that gate open!" John yelled over the sound of his P90 firing.

"I'm working on it!" Alice shouted back at him, firing at the stampeding...she didn't know what it was. She turned and slapped the address, the gate activated and she quickly punched in her code. "Gate's open, let's go!" Alice picked up her gun and fired it at the creature. John and Teyla moved back, they were closest to him, Ford was just to her left helping to cover them. John and Teyla moved past them and walked backwards through the gate, Alice and Ford stood up and followed after them.

Alice stepped back into the gateroom, still firing her weapon until the gate shut down. Alice exhaled, she yelled out in excitement. Bates ran over to join them.

He poked an accusatory finger at John, his eyes were bulging "I told you she was a liability, sir! Now I'm not gonna let your personal feelings endanger this facility any longer!"

Teyla and Alice's jaws dropped "What?!" Teyla shrieked.

Bates turned to Teyla, his jaw clenched and the veins in his neck bulging "Look, I'm not accusing you of doing it intentionally, but the Wraith must be getting information from you!"

John pressed his lips together, "What the hell are you talking about? We ran into a ... uh ..." he turned to look at Ford and Alice "what the hell was that?"

Alice's eyes widened and she shrugged. Ford stuttered for a second, "Looked an awful lot like a T-rex, sir."

John turned back to Bates, resting his hands on the butt of his P90, "Yeah, a T-rex! It wasn't even a Wraith! So why don't you check those accusations?"

Elizabeth stepped in between Bates and John, "I take it you don't recommend the planet as an Alpha site, Major?"

John shook his head, "Wouldn't be my first choice. If McKay doesn't get the satellite online, we're screwed."

Alice hung her head, all the adrenaline she'd felt drained out of her body, leaving her with a cold feeling of dread.

* * *

John, Alice and Ford were back in the Conference Room looking at another list of planets that they've visited. Alice stretched out her arms cracking her fingers, they weren't having much luck.

"What about M1K-439?" John flicked an image up onto the screen.

Ford interlocked his hands behind his neck, "Which one's that?"

John scrolled down on his laptop, "The one with all the waterfalls."

Ford sighed, "The waterfalls. See, now, why don't we just call it Planet Waterfall?" Alice just gave him a side glance shaking her head, "What? I say we should just give 'em names!" He took his hands down and pointed at his screen. "Look, we've got a list of five planets here. That should be enough potential Alpha sites to get Stackhouse and his team started."

Alice heard the click of the internal comms system engaging, "Major Sheppard. We have a situation at Generator Station One."

They all exchanged looks, jumping up and hurried out of the room. They ran into the generator room, a group of marines were crowded by something next to the generator "What's the problem?"

The marine closest to them stood at attention, "It's Bates, sir."

John looked at him confused, "What about him?"

"He's been attacked." the group of marines stepped aside, to reveal Bates lying unconscious on the floor with another marine bending over him. Alice ran over and began checking his vitals.

"Get a medical team down here." John ordered the marine.

Alice placed two fingers on Bates neck feeling the soft pulse of his heart underneath, she winced as she looked at his face. He'd been badly beaten, there was blood streaming from his nose. She looked up at John, she was anxious, scared and didn't know what to make of this incident. Why would someone in the base want to beat Bates this badly, she thought to herself.

Alice stood back as Carson and his team started working on Bates, "there's nothing more you can do lass, why don't you go get some rest." Carson looked back up at her. She looked around and realised everyone else had left the room.

Alice felt like she was in a daze, her feet had taken her to her room. She opened the door and turned on the lights, that's when she realised her hands were still covered in Bates' blood. She ran into the bathroom and shoved her hands under the cold water, rubbing them furiously to get the blood off. Alice's breath was coming in short, shallow gasps.

She shut off the water and braced herself against the sink, lowering her head inbetween her arms. Closing her eyes, she tried to slow her breathing, counting each breath in and out.

Feeling steadier, she moved back into her room and sat down on the floor next to her bed. She lent back and rested her head on her mattress, they were now only a couple of days away from the Wraith arriving and if Rodney didn't get this satellite to work... She'd been trying to keep these thoughts at the back of her mind, but seeing Bates broken on the floor like that had hit her hard.

Memories and faces started flashing through her mind, Evan and John were the most prominent. She felt a sick feeling in her stomach, she'd avoided John now for weeks never giving him an answer and now they were on the verge of annihilation. Alice whipped her head up and quickly got to her feet, she moved quickly to the door, startled when it opened and revealed John standing in front of her.

Alice stood frozen staring up at him, John swallowed taking a step into her room cupping her face and pressed his lips to hers. It didn't take long for Alice to react, she grabbed a fist full of his jacket and pulled him back deeper into her room. Their kisses grew more passionate and feverish until they both pulled away for air.

John rested his forehead against hers. Their breath came in gasps, "John, I'm so sorry" Alice's voice cracked.

He shook his head against hers, "Riles" he shushed her and wrapped his arms tightly around her.

Alice could feel herself trembling in his arms, tears started welling in her eyes. "I'm so scared" she whispered, burying her face into his chest.

"So am I" John kissed her head, and held her even tighter. They stayed like that for a few minutes, before John pulled back and tilted her chin up. He gently brushed his fingers under her eyes, wiping the tears that had started to fall, "come with me."

Alice watched as he grabbed her blanket off the bed and led her out the room. Alice felt vulnerable as they walked through the city hand in hand, but luckily they didn't cross anyone as they went. John led her to the nearest transporter and tapped a few times on the screen, Alice didn't take her eyes of his face, wanting to memorise all his minute features. He smiled at her and squeezed her hand as the transporter opened up into a small room, there was a door directly across from them. John waved his hand over the crystals, and as it opened a warm breeze hit her face. Alice stared out in wonder as she looked out across the ocean, they were up on top one of the buildings on the edge of the city.

"This is incredible." John gave her his signature lopsided grin and guided her to sit down on the ground with him, with their backs against the wall. He spread the blanket out over the two of them and then put his arm around her shoulders.

Alice leaned into John's embrace, she tilted her her to look up at him. He lent down and captured her lips with his. "John, if we don't-" Alice started, but was cut off as John kissed her again.

"Let's just not think about it, just for tonight." Alice closed her eyes and smiled, tucking herself in tighter against him staring out and listening to the waves crash against Atlantis. She could feel John's chest rising and falling under her.

She shifted her weight so she was now straddling him, his hands slowly slid down from the top of her back to her hips. She stared down at him and slowly started unbuttoning his shirt. John gave her hips a tight squeeze dragging his fingers under the hem of her shirt and lent towards her so she could fully remove his shirt. As she took his off, his fingers whipped up and pulled her top over her head. They stared at each other for a minute, gazing deeply into each others eyes. Alice nodded ever so slightly and John reacted instantly. One of his hands moved up her back and pressed her into him as they began to passionately kiss.

* * *

Alice and John stepped into transporter, they'd watched the sunrise from their hidden spot and were now going back to complete their duties. The doors closed and Alice quickly pecked John on the lips, "thank you."

John grinned at her and touched his forehead to hers, "I have to go see Bates, you go to the control room and see if you can find another alpha site." He kissed her sweetly on the lips.

"Okay" Alice activated the transported and stepped out when the doors opened, she watched John until the doors closed again.

Alice took the stairs up to the control room two at a time, "any word from Rodney and his team?"

Elizabeth walked across the gantry, "they've managed to connect the generator, but they're struggling to get the weapon to completely power up. We're expecting the next check-in in about an hour" Elizabeth checked her watch.

"Great, I'll be in the conference room." Elizabeth nodded and headed back towards her office.

Alice entered the conference room, Stackhouse and Lloyd were already set up. "Morning boys" Alice took the empty seat, "how's it looking?"

Stackhouse clapped his hands together, "I've got the perfect place." He spun his laptop around to show Alice, "permission to take a team to scope it out."

Alice scanned the planet report, "looks good, you're good to go." Stackhouse jumped up and headed for the door, "good luck!"

* * *

Alice sat in one of the sofas in Elizabeth's office, her hands clasped between her knees. Radek approached the office, "You asked to see me?"

"Riley and Stackhouse have found a suitable Alpha site, so, should the need arise, we'll be able to evacuate." Elizabeth gave Alice a grateful look, Alice gave her a half-hearted smile in return.

Radek look surprised, "Oh, that's good!"

"That's not why I wanted to see you." Elizabeth was chewing the inside of her cheek, "You have to get me more than seven or eight percent of the database. There has got to be a way of taking more with us."

Radek sighed, "Maybe nine percent."

"How do I choose between Zero Point Module research and their work on ascension? Between weapons schematics and their notes on space travel? No matter what we choose here, invaluable information is gonna be lost, and that is just the information that we've deciphered. Now we all know we have barely even begun to scratch the surface. What if we destroy the cure for all disease, or even some piece of information that could lead to the downfall of the Wraith?"

Alice felt for Radek, she knew this was just as difficult for him as it was for Elizabeth to accept. They'd only managed to decode a fraction of the database, Alice couldn't even guess what else could be hidden away there.

"I don't know what I can tell you. I will try to improve on McKay's compression ratios, but we are at war, Elizabeth. In war, there are casualties." Radek spoke solemnly, he bowed his head and headed back towards his lab.

Alice flattened her palms out onto her knees, pushing herself up. "I'll start gathering together an evacuation schedule."

* * *

Alice watched a shooting star fly across the night sky, the days were short on the planet they were setting up the Alpha site.

The team were currently unloaded emergency shelters and equipment, preparing for any necessary evacuations. Alice just hoped they didn't have a repeat of what happened at the last alpha site.

"Captain Riley, we've got an incoming wormhole." One of the marines stationed at the gate radioed in.

Alice cursed they weren't expecting anyone, "defensive positions." Alice ran over to the treeline. Working her way towards the gate.

"Captain Riley, this is Atlantis. Do you copy?" John's voice echoed in her ear.

Alice's shoulders relaxed and she slowed down, "Geez Major, you gave us a hell of a fright."

"Sorry Riles, look we've got a bit of a situation here." John's voice was tense.

"What's going on?" Alice stepped through the trees into the clearing around the gate. The marines guarding the gate gave her a confused look as she gestured for them to stand down.

"We...uh...we might have some Wraith inside the city." She could almost picture John wincing as he stumbled over his words.

"What?! How did they manage to get in?" Alice's mouth hung open, "that's it, I'm heading back to-"

"No, you stay at the alpha site. We've got this handled." John interrupted.

Alice bit her cheek, "well... keep me updated, sir."

"Try not to worry about it Riles" Alice acknowledged and ordered the marines to move back to their original positions.

* * *

Alice paced anxiously in front of the gate, "we should have heard from them by now right?" Lloyd was keeping pace with her. "I mean they should have at least heard something from the satellite team."

Alice bit her lip, Lloyd was getting on her nerves. Mostly, because he was voicing the exact same concerns that were running through her brain and it was making her anxiety even worse. "What if they've been overtaken by the Wraith?"

"Lloyd" Alice shouted at him, "enough! Until we hear from them, let's just assume they're fine."

Almost as she finished speaking the gate started to dial, Alice clicked her radio addressing all personnel "We have an incoming wormhole, defense teams stand by." Alice took up position behind the DHD, Lloyd went over to the treeline with the other marines.

Alice raised her weapon as the gate activated. "Steady." she whispered into her radio.

"Captain Riley, come in."Alice relaxed as Elizabeth's voice came through the radio.

"Elizabeth, we're very happy to be hearing from you. What's the situation with Wraith?" Alice's chest felt tight as she waited for Elizabeth's response.

"Luckily, there was only one and Major Sheppard has managed to capture it with no casualties. He's in the process of interrogating him now." Alice sighed in relief.

"That's good news." Alice smiled to herself, "what about Rodney and his team?"

"I wish I could tell you better news" Alice's stomach dropped as she listened, "the plan to stop the Wraith failed, we managed to destroy one ship but the satellite was destroyed in the process and I'm afraid to say we lost Dr. Grodin in the explosion."

Alice's heart stopped, she felt like she couldn't breathe. Elizabeth continued, "we're beginning the evacuation of Atlantis, are you prepared to receive equipment and civilians."

Alice signalled to the marines, they crept out of the treeline and headed to the gate. "We're ready Elizabeth."

* * *

Don't forget to leave your comments and thoughts in the reviews!

'till next time!


	10. Chapter 10: The Siege

**A/N Hope everyone has been having a lovely weekend.**

 **Let the seige begin!!**

"Let's get this set up over here." Alice directed a few scientists over to one of the tents on the far side of the compound. "We need to keep this main clearing clear, the final group should be coming through any moment."

The scientists began shifting the equipment, Alice jogged back into the main clearing. Lloyd was directing the medical personnel to the temporary infirmary they'd set up. "How we doing?" she approached him.

"Looking good, infirmary is just about set up and we have teams patrolling the gate and the immediate vicinity...just in case." Lloyd looked around as if expecting the Wraith so jump out at any second, Alice could see the lines forming under Lloyd's eyes. The stress the team had been under was starting to take its toll, they had been working non-stop to get everything set everything up. Although Alice was grateful for the chance to be in charge, but she knew that John had really ordered her here to keep her from harm's way.

"Is this everyone now?" Lloyd yawned, shaking Alice out of her thoughts.

"Yep, just the Major, Weir, Ford and Rodney left." Alice looked down at her watch, "They should be coming through any moment now."

"Riles, come in." Alice jumped at John's voice.

"Are you ready to head through sir?" Alice popped her hip, raising her finger up to her earpiece.

"Not exactly." Alice and Lloyd exchanged a confused look. "I need you to gather all military personnel and any civilians willing to assist in damage control."

Alice was perplexed, "sir?"

"Reinforcements from the SGC have arrived. We're going to be fighting for the city after all." John's voice was reluctant; Alice wasn't going to think twice about defending the city though.

Lloyd grinned widely, "yes sir, give us 10 minutes."

Alice spun around and leapt onto one of the larger storage boxes, clicking on her radio as she did. "Attention all personnel, reinforcements have arrived and we will be returning to Atlantis to defend our home. All military personnel please report to the gate, and any civilians if you wish to help, then meet us there." Jumping down, she grabbed extra P90 rounds from the ammo box and headed towards the gate side by side with Lloyd.

Alice gazed around in awe as she stepped through the event horizon into the gateroom, it felt just like the first time she'd seen it. Her chest filled with anxiety and excitement.

The gateroom was teeming with activity, large black boxes were being moved from the edge of the platform down into the corridors.

Alice moved up the stairs, turning back to look at everyone stepping through the gate "clear the gate area and report to your designated team leaders."

She ran up the steps towards the control room, she froze mid-step as she saw a broad shouldered, brown haired soldier standing next to John. She couldn't believe her eyes, but she'd never forget those features. "Evan?" she blinked a few times, as the soldier slowly turned around.

He grinned broadly as his eyes landed on her face, she could feel tears welling in her eyes. "Hey Aly-cat!" his voice was music to her ears, she broke out into a run tightly wrapping her arms around his neck. She felt Evan chuckle and his arms grip her in a tight embrace, "it's good to see you too."

"I can't believe you're here" she whispered in his ear, she felt a tear run down her face.

Someone cleared their throat and Alice let go of Evan, jumping away from him to look at John. Her face flushed slightly and she quickly wiped her face.

John was tense, his jaw was clenched and he was holding himself incredibly rigid. Another man stepped out next to John, Alice immediately stood at attention and brought her right hand up into a salute, "Colonel."

He returned her salute, "At ease, you must be Captain Riley." The Colonel looked between Alice and Evan, "I see you know my second-in-command." Alice dropped her head slightly embarrassed. "Please go with Major Lorne and Sheppard, I need you to assist in the placement of the mines."

Alice nodded and followed Evan out of the control room and up to the Jumper bay. John followed closely behind them, "Lorne" John spoke harshly, "Do you have the gene?" Evan nodded, Alice frowned at John's tone "right, Riles you take the Major and give him a crash course. Then both of you get up there and start laying the mines." John readjusted his jacket, "I'll start training the rookies."

"Yes sir." Alice didn't miss Evan raising his eyebrows when John said his nickname for her. John gave Alice a small glance before walking towards a small group of marines, who were examining the outside of the Jumper.

"Here, let's go in this one." Alice opened the rear door and led the way up to the cockpit,

"so, uh... Riles is it?" Alice closed her eyes and wrinkled her nose. She couldn't afford to let Evan know about hers and John's relationship.

"Shut up." Alice blushed slightly, she quickly sat down in the pilot's seat and powered up the main controls.

Evan chuckled and put his hand on her back, "it's really good to see you Aly. I..uh... also got your message."

Alice turned her head to look at him, slightly wary, "you have to know how so-"

"Aly, don't" Evan gave her a warm smile, rubbing his thumb over her back. "No matter how much of a pain in the ass you are, you're always going to be my best friend."

Alice put her hand on top of his and rested her head there too, smiling. "Riles, you ready... oh um, sorry." She could hear the screech of John's boots as he quickly stopped and had started to turn away.

"Major!" Alice called out, but he'd already walked out of sight. She quickly took her hand off Evan's, she wanted to run out of the Jumper and explain to John.

But there was too much else at stake at the moment, she coughed awkwardly she could see him smirking as he took a seat opposite her "right, so these are the main controls."

Alice jumped out of her chair, and opened the door. "Great flying!" She smiled widely as Evan stepped out of his Jumper.

"I had a great teacher." Evan grinned and nudged her shoulder as they both started walking towards the control room.

"Hopefully that will, at the very least, make them hesitate." Alice felt giddy, she was starting to feel the dread and anxiety fade away. They might actually be able to pull this off, not to mention the burst of energy seeing Evan had given her.

Behind them she heard another Jumper setting down, she could see John's tense face through the windshield. "I'll catch up to you." She didn't wait to see if Evan had heard her, and ran over to the opening rear ramp. Her eyes darted left and right, no one was close enough to hear them if she kept their voices low.

John was stood in the rear compartment, his eyes trained on the floor. He hadn't been expecting to see her, "John." She said seriously. "can I speak to you for a minute?"

He looked uncomfortably at her, "we really need to get to the control room." He moved to her right to step around her, but Alice blocked his path.

"John. I wanted to talk about Major Lorne."

John's face hardened, "You don't need to say anything. I understand." He tried to step around her again.

Alice slammed her palm into his chest, causing him to step backwards to regain his balance. "No, you don't" she quickly rose onto her tip toes and pecked him on the lips. "Evan is a very good friend of mine." She looked at John's confused face. "That's all."

"Are you sure 'Aly-cat'?" John's hazel eyes looked piercingly down at her.

"You don't trust me?" She pushed back from him and crossed her arms over her chest.

John stepped back and ran his hand through his hair, messing it up even more than it already was. "Of course I do Riles, but i can't just ignore how you look at him."

"What are you talking about?" Alice narrowed her eyes.

John laughed sarcastically, "he's more than just a friend" he pointed out where she'd left Evan, "you've never looked at me the way you looked at him."

Alice swallowed, anger rose up in her chest. "I'm resigning so that i can be with you, and you're worried about an old boyfriend." She scoffed and stormed out of the jumper. Ignoring him calling her name.

Alice took the last step down to the control room and saw Rodney standing next to Elizabeth, Evan and Everett. His mouth was pulled tight, before Alice could ask what was happening an alarm activated.

Elizabeth whipped around to the technicians sat in front of the control panels, "What is it?"

"It's the city's short range sensors!" Alice dived for the nearest seat and pulled up the system to the main screen.

"We have incoming. I don't know where they came from -- they just appeared all of a sudden." the technician's voice trembled.

John ran in down the last few stairs, "What's going on?"

"We just detected a wave of objects approaching the planet." Elizabeth crossed her arms and didn't take her eyes off the screen.

"How many?" The Colonel demanded.

Alice looked down at her screen, "Over a hundred, sir."

"How come they weren't detected by the long range sensors?" John placed his hand at the back of Alice's chair staring down at the screen. All thoughts of their argument vanished, as she watched in horror as the asteroids approached their mines.

Rodney was gazing up at the main display, "Because they're rocks, asteroids!" He turned his face showing fear and shock, "The Wraith must have harvested them from the system's asteroid belt and accelerated them towards us from a safe distance. The mainframe's taken this long to determine that they were a threat."

"Can they do much damage?" Elizabeth questioned.

"Oh yeah." Rodney scoffed, "Admittedly most of them'll burn off in the atmosphere but ... that's not why they're doing."

"They're headed toward the mines." Everett stated, pointing at the screen.

"Well, can't they be deactivated?" John's voice was incredibly tense.

"No!" Everett said bluntly.

They all watched quietly in despair as the asteroids activated the mines and they disappeared from the screen. Rodney shrunk back into the chair behind him. The cold dread feeling was returning to Alice, she couldn't take her eyes off the screen. Her eyes could still make out where the small blips of lights that signified the mines were.

"Well -- that's that." Rodney broke the silence. "Your mines make one hell of a bang, Colonel -- I'm sure the Wraiths' ears are ringing."

Ignoring Rodney's tone, John tapped Alice's shoulder, "What's the status of the hive ships?"

Alice shook her head softly, "there's no way to know."

Rodney tapped on his keyboard, and sighed "The mine detonation must have overloaded the sensors."

The Colonel stepped up towards control panel, "How long until they're back up?"

"Hours." Alice murmured softly.

"Yeah, well, they're still out there -- and we just lost our primary line of defense." John stood up and gave them a despairing look.

Alice stared at the screen a moment longer, "Captain, Major Lorne. Please check on the status of the railguns. We're going to need them all operational as soon as possible."

They both nodded instinctively. Neither one of them could process what just happened or what that meant for them now.

Alice rolled her chair backward and mindlessly stood up to follow Evan. John's hand was still on the back of her chair, as she stood up and he stuck out his finger allowing it to stroke up her arm as she rose. Her eyes darted to his and saw her panic and fear reflected in them.

"I'll check in on the defense and damage control teams." John looked at Everett, awaiting his approval.

Everett pondered it a moment before gruffly tilting his head and John followed Alice out of the room.

"Evan, you go to positions one to five. I'll check on the others." Evan looked between her and John, the look he gave her she knew meant she'd have some explaining to do later. But he just nodded and headed towards the first position.

Alice waited until she was sure he couldn't see them, and then grabbed John's hand and dragged him into the nearest room. Luckily, it was empty with only the emergency lighting active. "How are we supposed to win this..."

John tightened his grip on her hand and pulled her into his chest. "I don't know..."

Alice closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around John's waist, "please just stay safe." She whispered, her throat feeling dry and scratchy. Their last argument was forgotten as the threat of the impending Wraith attack loomed over them.

John pulled back and looked down at her with a lopsided grin, "Isn't that supposed to be my line?"

Alice laughed wiping her eyes, "just…don't do anything stupid." She went up onto her tiptoes and placed a light kiss on his lips.

John cupped her face before she could pull away and brought her into a more passionate kiss. "This isn't goodbye, no matter what you stay alive okay?" John eyes bored holes into hers, he raised his eyebrows expectantly at her.

She tensed, she knew this was a promise she might not be able to keep, but she would do her best. "Okay" his eyes brightened slightly and he kissed once more softly before pulling away all together.

"Keep in touch." Alice nodded and walked out the room, throwing her head over her shoulder to take a final look at John.

Alice was underneath one of the railguns, she had reviewed the specs and was now helping the teams to tighten up any loose bolts. Her face was covered in oil and grit from the new machines.

She gripped the shelf above her and pulled herself out from underneath. "Right, that should do it!" She yelled up at the marine. She quickly scooted out of the way as he got in the seat and powered up. The gun performing perfectly. Alice sighed, "fantastic" she held up a thumbs up to Captain Radner.

"You all done here?" Evan grabbed her wrist and pulled her up from the ground.

"Yep, looks like it." She looked around and nodded, going through any final checks in her head. "Looks like we may be able to just rela-"

Warning alarms blasted in her ears, she clamped her hands over her ears. She ran forward to the balcony, squinting trying to see in the darkness.

"Attention, we have a wave of darts incoming. Commencing blackout." The sudden change in light blinded her for a moment, but she with her other senses working in overdrive to compensate she could just make out the whir of the darts engine.

Captain Radner was running up and down the gun positions, "Remember -- short steady bursts."

The railguns were swinging around and into position. Marines all around Alice were aiming their weapons into the sky as the sound of approaching Darts grew louder. "Give me that!" Alice tore a gun out of one of the marine's hands, Evan moved down and retrieved another one.

They stood shoulder to shoulder gripping their weapons. Despite the cool ocean air, Alice could feel sweat starting to build up on her forehead. Her finger trembled slightly over the trigger. "Here they come!" She yelled as loud as she could and began firing.

Flares flew up igniting the sky, then chaos broke loose. Alice couldn't hear anything apart from the sound of her gun and the railguns opening fire. She could see parts of the city being lit up with explosions from the crashing darts.

She cursed, the dart pilots were deliberately crashing into the city. "Radner!" She took her eyes off the darts for a second, whipping her head around to the Captain. He nodded, grabbing his radio and taking a few paces back to yell into it. Alice kept firing until her gun clicked.

She looked around desperately, "here!" Evan held up a black cartridge to her. She took it gratefully and slammed it into her gun, locking a bullet into the chamber and aiming back into the sky. Another dart flew past them, crashing into the building just next to them. Alice squinted as the light flashed, she kept her eyes on the darts.

They should have had the drones up by now, she wasn't sure how much longer they could keep this up.

Alice clipped one of the darts wings and watched it careen straight into the ocean. She smiled, but then was completely taken off her feet as a massive weight barreled into her, "look out!" Another dart came screaming past their position, activating its beam as it soared past. Luckily missing Evan and her by mere feet.

Alice looked at Evan on top of her, "th-thanks" she stuttered. She can't believe how close they'd been to being taken.

"Don't thank me yet Aly-cat." He gripped her forearm and dragged her up.

Alice reloaded her gun, she stared out at the warzone in front of her. Fires were burning all through the city and it didn't look like they'd made any impact at all. Just as she was beginning to feel hopeless, a flurry of bright lights shot up from the ground.

Alice's face broke into a smile and she started laughing, "yes!" Evan looked at her like she'd gone slightly crazy but smiled in any case.

The drones were taking the darts down one by one, they finally seemed to be gaining the upper hand. Alice and Evan continued to fire at the last dart, as it was being pursued by a drone.

Finally, it blew up, Alice lifted her arm to protect her face from the reign of debris that rained down on their position. Alice jumped up and down, grabbing Evan's shoulders and bringing him into a tight embrace. "Okay, okay, okay" he chuckled. "Come on, lets check in with the other positions."

Alice nodded, slightly out of breath. "Captain, we're going to check in. Get the guns reloaded and ready for another assault."

"Colonel, this is Captain Riley, come in." Alice tapped her earpiece.

"Go ahead Captain." Everett's gruff voice said.

"We've managed to get most of the fires under control. Though it looks like we've lost power throughout the city. Railguns are locked and loaded for another wave." Alice lent on the railing, resting her head on her hands.

"Good work Captain. It looks like some of the Wraith may have beamed into the city, would you be able to lead a patrol in your area?"

Alice stood bolt upright, her hand instinctively reaching for her rifle. "Yes sir, I'll have Major Lorne-"

"I want Major Lorne left in charge of the railguns, Captain. I'm sending you a team now to meet at your current position."

"Yes sir." Alice bit down on her lip, tingles ran up and down her spine. She felt vulnerable and like she was suddenly surrounded.

She was stood outside the main transporter on her level, awaiting her Wraith killing team. Just as she was pacing back and forth, the door opened revealing a few heavily armed marines.

"Right, lets go hunting." Alice raised her gun and headed for the outskirts of the city.

Alice gestured to her team, they were slinking through the corridors. Closing and securing off labs and doors as they went. The last thing they needed was a Wraith getting up behind them. She had a life signs detector held out in front of her, so far they'd not come across anything, but the longer they went without an engagement the tenser she was becoming.

Alice's radio clicked, she held up her fist and they all sunk to the floor. "This is Everett. The Wraith just took out one of our generators." Alice cursed, she looked at her scanner. She was no where near the generators.

"Teyla?" Alice felt a rush of relief run through her as she heard John's voice. In all this chaos it was reassuring that he was still unharmed.

"We are already on our way, Major!" Teyla sounded like she was running.

"We'll meet you there." John replied and then the radio went silent.

Alice looked at her scanner, and pointed forward. Her team began moving out.

Alice and her team were still clearing their section. They were currently on their way to the furthest generator station.

She was unloading the almost empty clip from her P90 and replacing it with a new one. "This is Everett. Jumper Four has just informed us the Wraith hive ships are approaching the planet. Defense team to your positions."

Alice looked at her team, they were staring at her waiting for their orders. She grabbed a few extra clips from their jackets, stuffing them into her own vest. "Go back to the railguns, I'll take care of the lasts few stragglers."

"Captain, we can't leave you on your own." One of the marines stepped forward.

"That's an order Sergeant." He hesitated a moment, Alice thought he might try and defy her, but he eventually nodded and handed over another spare clip of ammo. She took it gratefully and just before they could turn Elizabeth's voice came over the tannoy.

"This is Weir. Now I know how tired you all are, and how much we have asked of you these past few days." Alice looked at her team most, if not all, of them looked dead on their feet. "Hopefully the Daedalus will arrive soon, but until that happens our fate is in our own hands." They'd all stopped moving to listen to Elizabeth's speech. "If, during the course of this battle, our mission fails, I will give the order to evacuate. Now, we all hope it won't come to that. But if it does, don't hesitate. That is all."

Another moment went by, everyone absorbing the weight of what they needed to do. Alice moved past her team, placing a hand on their shoulders reassuringly as she went past, offering each one of them a warm smile. It was as much as she could do, if she stopped now to think, she wasn't sure she could do this. They took a final glance at her and headed back towards the center of the city.

Alice held up her scanner, and stepped into a dark corridor. She had only taken a few steps forward, when her scanner seemed to light up like a Christmas tree. Dots started appearing all around her, they were moving fast and closing in on her position.

Alice ran into one of the empty labs, she quickly turned over a piece of old furniture and rested her gun on top. She took low, deep breaths trying to calm her heart rate as her eyes darted back and forth from the door to the scanner. The dots were gathering right outside the door, she moved her finger so it was now lightly gripping her gun's trigger.

As soon as she could hear a snarl, she opened fire.

The room lit up with her tracer rounds and blue bolts of energy. She could hear the Wraith growling as her shots impacted them, but she could barely see in the dark. Her scanner had now fallen on the floor, from the recoil of her rifle shaking her make-shift barricade.

Alice's gun clicked, she ducked down and wrenched a cartridge out of her vest. Tossing the empty one aside and forcefully shoving in the next. The Wraith soldiers had taken advantage of the break in fire and we're now entering the room.

Alice popped her head around the edge of her hiding spot, taking down the Wraith working his way up the left side of the room. Before she could turn around and check the other side, a stunner blast came flying past her face barely missing her.

She aimed and fired, but he managed to bat her gun to the side and his fist connected with the side of her face. Splitting pain erupted in her head as she hit the ground hard. The whole world spun for a second, she could feel herself being lifted off the ground.

Her vision started to clear and her eyes widened in panic as a Wraith raised his hand up. Pulling a knife out of her belt she thrust forward plunging it deep into his neck. Blood sprayed from the wound onto her face. Alice raised her gun and sent a spray of fire out into the room.

Suddenly, she was thrown backwards against the wall. A shriek of pain escaped her lips as something pierced her into her shoulder. However, she couldn't afford to let her guard down for a second, as soon as she slid to the floor she had her gun pointed at the Wraith soldier and yelled as she fired the last of her clip into his chest.

He slowly dropped to the floor. Alice's chest was heaving; panic had caused all her muscles to tighten. Grabbing the scanner off from the floor she turned it over and almost laughed as she was the only dot shown on the screen.

Sitting back, she propped the scanner on her legs so she could keep an eye on it.

Groaning, she pulled her vest across so she could reach her radio. She cursed, her radio had been smashed and the plastic now lodged in her shoulder she assumed was from it.

She could hear alarms sounding in the distance, the power still seemed to be off in this section. Stuffing the scanner into her vest she braced herself against the wall, slowly drawing herself up.

She almost doubled over as pain shot through her chest, she tried to take in a deep breath but that made it worse. She knew it was most likely from a cracked or broken rib.

She harshly placed her hand over the source of the pain and stood up straight, biting her lip to stop from screaming out loud. Her head swam as she finally managed to gwt to her feet.

Stumbling forward, she managed to grab the edge of her barricade before she could drop down onto the floor. The world started swimming around her until all she could see was darkness.

* * *

Alice slowly opened her eyes, her head felt like it was being split open.

Cautiously, she dragged herself up until she was resting on her elbows, with her head hanging down towards the floor. She tried closing her eyes to regain some stability, but it only made it worse. She blinked trying to find something stationary to focus on. Her stomach heaved and she was sick on the floor beneath her. She pushed up and rolled her body away from the pool of sick, groaning in pain as she did.

She noticed a flicker of light and kicked her legs out, shuffling towards it. It turned out to be her lifesigns detector, the casing was partially cracked, but otherwise seemed to work fine. Alice took in a deep breath and tried to focus her mind, "get it together Alice" she grunted to herself. "Remember your training, check your surroundings, assess the danger, then if you can go for help." She repeated this to herself like a mantra.

She picked up the scanner and stared at it, she could only see one dot on the screen. At least that meant she was safe, for now. She shuffled herself up against the wall, the cold was soothing on her back and neck. She had no idea how long she'd been out for, but it couldn't have been too long.

She could barely see anything in the room around her, and the pain in her skull was making it difficult to focus. Her eyelids kept drooping, but she knew she needed to stay alert and get out of this section.

She allowed herself another few moments to rest, then wrapped her arm around her chest protectively. Taking in a deep breath, she braced herself and slid her hand up the wall slowly bringing her feet up beneath her.

Keeping one arm around her chest, and the other against the wall she began slowly shuffling towards the door. She'd only taken a few steps when she had to stop, her P90 kept swinging around her waist and hitting against her chest. Propping herself up she tried to unzip her vest, but the Wraith who had grabbed her before had torn through most of the material leaving it hanging by a few threads. She tugged and it gave way falling onto the ground.

Straightening up, feeling slightly better without the weight on her shoulders, she resumed shuffling against the wall. Alice managed to make it out and down the corridor, moving slowly and quietly.

Her progress was painfully slow, every step was causing her agony. Every once in a while she had to stop to wretch, though there was almost nothing left in her stomach to throw up. Keeping her head held up was starting to feel like too much effort, but as soon as she tilted it down her vision blurry and her head spun.

She stopped moving, reaching up to grab the scanner she'd shoved in her vest. "shit…" she grasped at the material of her shirt, she'd accidentally left the scanner with her discarded vest. Every muscle in her body was screaming at her, and it felt like there was a small voice in her head whispering to her to give in and close her eyes.

Tears burned down the sides of her face, her chest felt tight and her throat was dry. If Wraith didn't kill her, the concussion she had just might. She wasn't about to give up, just yet though. "Move…" she screamed at her body, tightening her grip around her chest so that a spark of pain shot up her spine. The pain caused her mind to clear for a moment, long enough to get her feet moving again.

Alice stumbled over her feet, she was definitely lost now. Throwing her hand out hard she bashed the wall in frustration. Allowing herself to turn and rest against the wall, taking in deep breaths. She knew this area of the city could still be crawling with Wraith, and without her scanner or P90 she was a sitting duck. She either needed to get back to the city or find somewhere to hide. The pain in her head was definitely getting worse.

"Keep moving." She ordered her body. Pushing off the wall she continued to walk blindly down the corridors.


	11. Chapter 11: The Siege

**A/N Hope everyone's been having a lovely weekend!**

I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who has reviewed and favorited this story. You guys are the best and I hope you enjoy the latest chapter!

* * *

Up head Alice started to see light, moving faster doors started opening as she passed. Hope started rising in her chest, she must've made it back to the main section. Pushing herself forward she saw the staircase that should take her back up to the main tower.

Alice struggled to make it up the first few stairs, she was panting hard and her head was swimming more than before. Her stomach clenched and she stopped as her stomach heaved again. She slumped down onto the railing, more tears starting falling down her face. She bit down on her lip to stop her screaming out in pain. Her body wanted to give up, and her vision was narrowing. Will power along could only keep her going so long, her body would fail her anytime now.

Gun fire made her jump. Her hand automatically drew down to her sidearm and she looked around. The noise seemed to be coming from above her, taking out her gun she grunted and continued fighting her way up the stairs with a renewed burst of energy.

Her heart was beating fast, her throat was dry but adrenaline was surging through her. She heard more shots being fired, they were closer now. She forced her foot up on to the final step.

"So! This is how it's gonna be, huh?! Just me?!" Alice couldn't believe she was thinking it, but Rodney's voice was actually music to her ears. She pushed off the railing and grabbed onto a crate to see Rodney holding his gun out on a Wraith soldier.

"Ok! That's just fine! You want some of this, huh?! Huh?!" Alice heard his gun click and a metal clang as something dropped to the floor. Raising her gun up to her face she prepared herself for another fight.

"I've got this" Alice almost jumped out of her skin as Teyla's voice sounded next to her.

Alice watched her carefully make her towards Rodney and take out the last Wraith. Feeling relieved she re-holstered her gun and collapsed onto the floor against the crate letting out a massive sigh.

"Doctor Mckay? Are you alright?" Teyla ran over to where Rodney had taken cover.

He stared at her with wide eyes, "oh thank god!" He stood up and that's when he saw Alice. She lifted her hand up to give him a small wave, clenching her jaw in pain at the same time. "Aly! We thought you were...they found your team dead and your vest shredded."

"You can't get rid of me that easy Rodney" she tried to give him a smile, but it must've ended up looking like a grimace.

Rodney faltered a bit, "... I thought I was gonna ..."

"I thought you were very brave." Teyla placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

Rodney lent down to pick up a metal crate from the floor, "Really?!" Alice rubbed her eyes looking at the box. "Oh. I have a ZedP.M." He said following her gaze.

Alice rolled her eyes at the obviousness, Teyla looked at him expectantly "Yes."

"This may get the shields up." He stammered, looking between the box and the two of them.

Teyla gestured with her gun, "Lead the way."

Rodney peered down the hallway to the main power room, "Yeah, sure." He looked back at them, looking like he wanted to step backwards "...Uh, after you."

Alice sighed and reached her hand up to start pulling herself up, "ah, where do you think you're going?" Teyla placed her hand softly on Alice's shoulder gently pushing her back down.

"What does it look like?" Alice muttered back, attempting to fight against Teyla's hand.

"No, you're staying here and we're going to get you some help. We've got this, right Rodney?" Teyla raised her eyebrows.

"It's not like you can be much help." Teyla rolled her eyes, she looked about ready to smack him.

Alice cursed, she knew they were right. "Fine, go." She jerked her head, Teyla gently pressed her forehead to hers and then ran off with Rodney.

Alice watched them until they were completely out of her sight. The pain in her head crashed over her, she threw her hands up to grab it.

The room started spinning and she barely felt her head hit the ground as darkness engulfed her.

* * *

"Where is she?! They said she was dead!" Alice felt like she was floating in a dark pit. She could just barely make out some sounds around her.

"They found her vest ripped to shreds and her team were all killed, so I guess they just assumed..." the voices were disembodied and as Alice floated in the darkness she struggled to make out any connections as to what or who they were discussing.

"Is she going to be alright?" This voice was clearer, she recognised Evan. He sounded closer than the other voice, calmer and more collected too.

"She's not out of the woods just yet, she's suffered a rather nasty head injury." A light breeze blew over her, "honestly, I don't know how she managed to get as far as she did."

"She's a fighter." Alice smiled as she heard John's voice. "Any idea when she might wake up?"

"We've got her sedated at the moment to allow the swelling in her head to go down." She heard footsteps moving away from her.

"Hang in there Riles." Alice could almost see John, she wanted to say something or reach out and grab him, but nothing worked. Slowly her senses started blurring and she was swallowed up again.

* * *

Alice wrinkled her nose, the sharp smell of disinfectant was irritating her.

"Well, hello there." Alice opened her her slowly, blinded against the harsh light.

"Evan?" She croaked.

"Who else?" She could tell he had that silly grin on his face before she even opened her eyes.

"Well I definitely can't be dead then, even hell would be better than having to look at you." She cracked a smile.

He lent over her pretending to examine her head, "at least the Wraith didn't bash the sense of humour out of you." Alice limply tried to bash him away.

Her smile disappeared though as she became more aware of her surroundings. The infirmary was chaos, medics were everywhere running back and forth between beds and it looked like more people were being dragged in every other minute.

Alice quickly struggled to sit up, her eyes wide and panic flaring up in her chest. "Hey, hey calm down."

Evan tried to press her shoulders back down onto the bed. She gripped and twisted his hand back, "what's happened?"

"Aly..." Evan winced, Alice narrowed her eyes but let go of his hand. "We destroyed another hive, the other retreated and we got the shield up."

"But?" She knew it couldn't be that easy.

Evan dropped his head and ran his hand over the back of his neck, "more are on their way, Sheppard is on the Daedalus now hitting them with a pre-emptive strike."

Alice threw the blankets off the bed and started tugging at the needle in her hand. "Where do you think you're going missy?" Carson ran over and grabbed her wrist preventing her from pulling out the drip. Evan had hold of her other hand.

"This fight isn't over and I'll be damned if I'm stuck in here while people are dying." Alice struggled against the two of them.

"Listen, you are in no shape to be fighting. You suffered a rather nasty head injury, you're lucky it didn't kill you." Carson's tone was serious, his grip tightened on her. "We've already lost good people and i'm not letting another one walk off to her death."

Alice's eyes were burning, she could understand where he was coming from, but it went against everything in her nature to sit back and do nothing. "Carson, staying here means you might save my life. But this is so much bigger than just one life, and i won't let the city fall because I have a headache."

Evan chuckled, "I'll keep an eye on her doc, make sure she's only acting in a strictly consolatory position." Alice was surprised at Evan's support, she thought he'd be on Carson's side.

Carson looked between Evan and Alice, finally looking down and sighing. He released her wrist, "Let me give you one final check." He looked up and pointed at Evan, "if...if I'm satisfied, I'll be counting on you the second she shows any signs..."

Evan held his arms up in surrender, "no worries doc, I'll drag her back kicking and screaming if i have to." Alice rolled her eyes, but let Carson carry out a full examination on her. Seemingly satisfied, Carson started unclipping her from the medical machines.

Carson pulled the curtains around, allowing her to get changed into a spare medical uniform. She felt weird being in yellow rather than black, but she'd happily run around in her hospital gown if she had to.

"Right, let's go." Alice picked up her sidearm from the cabinet and followed Evan out the door.

* * *

Alice stumbled up the stairs, Evan offered his hand but Alice kept her head up and kept moving. Evan had caught Alice up to on everything that had happened while she'd been out on their journey from the Infirmary, she was shaking with rage at John's recklessness. She couldn't believe he'd taken on a suicide mission.

Alice shook her head, trying to calm herself as she approached Elizabeth, Rodney and Teyla. "Elizabeth."

"Captain?" Elizabeth looked confusedly between Evan and Alice.

"Carson discharged me." Alice explained, straightening up and clasping her hands behind her back. Elizabeth raised her eyebrow, but Evan nodded in confirmation.

"Well, the Daedalus is just updating us on their engagement with the Wraith." Elizabeth looked back down at the console Rodney was sat at. He waved shyly at Alice looking guilty. Teyla smiled slightly as Alice came over and stood next to them.

"The bottom line is, it didn't work." She could hear the frustration in Colonel Caldwell's voice.

Elizabeth looked around at the faces of those around her, "Well, at least you gave them something to think about."

Caldwell sighed, "We'll see. I doubt very much that that tactic will work again, and the Daedalus has sustained damage."

"We should make it home before they do." The sound of John's voice made a flurry of emotions rage through Alice; happiness, anger, guilt and confusion. She started trembling again.

"I hope so. We'll keep the porch light on for you." She smiled and then disconnected the comms. Stepping back she addressed the team, "OK, what are our options?"

Rodney pushed out his chair and lent back holding his hand out, "Well, let me see - we've got slow death, quick death, painful death, cold, lonely death." He counted them off on his fingers.

Elizabeth started to walk towards her office. Rodney and Teyla stood up to follow her, Alice moved to go as well but Evan put her hand on her shoulder holding her back. "I've got to go back to my post, right now I'm the highest ranking military officer." Alice could see the small hint of pride on his face as he said it.

"Well that's a terrifying thought..." she smirked, "go, honestly i'm fine. Don't worry." Really her head was still throbbing, but whatever Carson had given her was keeping it dull.

He nodded and lent over to kiss her cheek, "try to keep out of trouble." Alice opened her mouth to come back with a witty retort, but Evan's stern look made her shut it quickly.

He gave her a last look and headed off into the gateroom. Alice turned to go to Elizabeth's office, she noticed Elizabeth eyeing Ford nervously. She'd been too distracted to really even notice his presence in the room, which was odd given his loud nature. Maybe her head was affecting her more than she thought.

She walked through the office to see Elizabeth cautiously raising her hand, "Lieutenant, I ..."

At that moment Carson hurried through the door, "Lieutenant - what do you think you're doing here?" Alice hung in the doorway, keeping her distance from both Carson and Ford.

Ford chuckled, "I'm fine, Doc, really." He looked around at the others, "It's cool."

Carson took a step forward, "The hell you are. You should be back in bed."

Ford grinned, "I feel great. Just drop it." He turned his back on him.

Carson took another step and raised his voice, Alice had never seen him like this. "I will not just drop it. Not twenty minutes ago you were at death's door. Now I don't care how spry you're feeling - you need to be under medical supervision."

Ford angrily whipped his head at him, then slowly turned back to Elizabeth. "I'm good to go." His jaw was clenched, but his voice was determined.

Alice subtly moved so she was in the way pf the door, she didn't know what had happened but Ford was definitely acting weird. Elizabeth out on her authoritative tone "I appreciate your enthusiasm, Lieutenant, but Doctor ..."

Ford's eyes widened, that's when Alice noticed one of his eyes was completely dark. "I-I'm serious - just let me prove it. Just give me something to do."

Carson closed the gap between them and grabbed his arm, "I don't think so."

Alice had barely blinked but suddenly Ford had Carson by the throat and had slammed him into the wall. "Don't push me around!" He growled.

"Lieutenant!" Alice ran forward, stepping in between Ford and Carson to block his view of the Doctor. She put her arm up on Ford's chest. "Put. Him. Down." She enunciated each word.

He continued to glare, he was almost snarling now. "That's an order Lieutenant!" Alice pushed her palm hard into his chest.

Ford slowly lowered Carson to the ground and released his grip on his throat. Carson started gasping for air, Teyla ran over to support him. Alice kept her eyes on Ford. He'd seemed to snap out of his aggressive trance and was not staring at them in horror.

He looked at the hand that had grabbed Carson's throat. "I'm sorry, Doc. I don't know why I ..."

"You need to be under medical supervision." Carson managed to croak out, Alice winced she knew exactly how raw and painful his throat would be feeling right now.

"He's right, Lieutenant. We just wanna know why you're suddenly feeling this way." Elizabeth said softly, it was Elizabeth's ability to remain calm and empathise with people that made her so admirable in Alice's eyes. It was definitely a skill she needed to work on.

Ford still looked shocked at his actions. "OK. I'll go back."

Elizabeth nodded firmly, "Good. It's what you should do."

"Yes, ma'am." Alice lifted her palm off him, allowing Teyla to lead him away. Once his back was turned Elizabeth leaned into whisper something to Carson.

Alice stood awkwardly in the room, as Carson headed out with Teyla and Ford. "What can I do?" Elizabeth looked slightly taken aback.

"Um...are you sure you're well enough to be out of the infirmary?" Alice could tell after what just happened she wasn't in the most trusting mood.

"If i wasn't Carson would've dragged me back too." Alice joked, Elizabeth's face still stayed serious. Alice cleared her throat, "he's cleared me to work purely on a consultative basis. No heavy lifting."

Elizabeth nodded slowly, walking past Rodney and her. "I'm sure Rodney could do with your brain power." With that she left the room.

"So, put me to work Doc." Alice grinned as Rodney rolled his eyes, leading her out of the room.

* * *

"The Daedalus has just landed at the East Pier." One of the technicians announced. She had to stop herself from running down to the East Pier and throttling John. He was lucky she had such great impulse control.

Alice was running a series of tests on the shields, since they'd never been able to power them up before they had no idea what kind of damage they could take. Especially considering they were only running it on one ZPM, and as Rodney kept pointing out, it wasn't designed to operate with just one.

Alarms started blaring just as Elizabeth, Rodney, Caldwell and John. Alice would deal with John later, at the moment her mind was slightly distracted.

"They're getting into a formation." Alice watched the screen closely.

Rodney hurried over to a console. Waving at the technician sitting there, "Move, move!"

A deep rumble echoed above them, whilst everyone looked up nervously, Alice and Rodney were checking the shields status.

"The shield's holding under the bombardment but it's under incredible strain." Rodney tapped his screen.

"How long will it hold?" Elizabeth's voice was tight.

"Well, if they stop firing at it, it'll last almost indefinitely but ..." Rodney trailed off, Alice checked her calculations again.

"Are we talking months, weeks?" Elizabeth pressed, leaning towards Rodney.

Rodney opened and closed his mouth, Alice cleared her throat, "Days. At this rate the ZPM will be depleted within days."

Elizabeth looked back at Rodney, who just nodded silently in confirmation. The entire room was deadly silent. The echoes of the blasts were the only thing you could hear, Elizabeth and Caldwell retreated in her office with Rodney talking through their options. Alice resumed typing on her computer, John stayed hovering nearby. "Riles, can I talk to you for a moment?"

Alice bit her lip, considering it for a moment. Deciding she'd rather get it over now she stood up and followed him out onto the balcony. Although everyone knew they were out there, the stained glass would give them enough privacy.

Alice walked past him and out the door first, her anger temporarily evaporated as she looked up at the bombardment above them. "woah.." her back was to John as she heard the door slide shut behind them.

She took a deep breath and turned around, her eyes on fire. "Riles, I can't believe you're ali-" John was cut off as Alice shot forward and slapped him hard across the face.

"You tried to kill yourself?!" She accused him, her breath coming in short gasps.

"No!" John raised his hand up to rub his slightly red face in jaw dropped in shock. "I mean yes, but only because i thought it was the only way to protect the city." He was trying to sound reasonable, but Alice wasn't in the mood for it.

"How could you? There had to be another option!" Alice was furious, she clenched her fists and started trembling.

"There was no other option, I couldn't let everyone here die. You would have done exactly the same." He was right, she knew it. But she was too furious to let him win this one.

"I would have waited for Rodney to tell me there was no other way!" She hissed back, it was a lie. They both suffered from the same fatal flaw, they were impulsive and irrational when it came to their own lives.

John stepped towards her, "there was no other choice, and besides i thought..." his jaw clenched.

She stepped closer to him, even though she was shorter than him, her glare made up for any difference. "Besides what?!"

John held her gaze, "i thought you were...dead." He struggled to get the last word out and dropped his gaze to the floor.

"And?" she spat the words, but she felt her throat constrict at the same time, "why should that make any difference?"

John stared at her blankly, "Alice! How can you not get how much you mean to me!?"

Alice struggled with what to say, but when she stepped forward her eyes clear and determined "Even if i was dead" she ignored John's wince as she said it, "the last thing I would want is for you to be reckless with your life." She stared at him for a moment longer and then brushed past him walking back into the control room.

Rodney jumped out of her way as she stormed past him, he looked at her awkwardly then headed out onto the balcony.

* * *

Alice sat at the conference room table, tapping her fingers on the table.

Caldwell was delivering his report, Alice had to stop herself from rolling her eyes at how stiff and formal he was. It was weird how used she'd gotten to Atlantis' relaxed military code. "The Daedalus will be back in fighting form within the next twenty-four hours, but I think the next engagement's gonna have the same result."

Elizabeth clasped her hands together on the desk, "Even if we were able to destroy these ships this instant, more would be here in a few days, and even more a few days after that. From where I'm standing, I just don't see how we can win this."

Rodney swivelled his chair uncomfortably, "Well now we know how the Ancients must have felt."

Radek sat forward, leaning on the table "Atlantis is the only way to Earth. As long as they know we're here, they're just going to keep coming."

"As long as they know that we're here." John muttered out loud.

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth eyes him curiously.

John straightened up, realising everyone was now looking at him, "Zelenka just said as long as they know that we're here, they'll keep coming."

Rodney rolled his eyes, "Yes, he said that."

John tapped his fingers twice on the table "Well, what if they thought we were gone?"

"Then there'd be no reason for them to stay." Teyla finished his thought.

John snapped his fingers at her "Exactly!"

"Exactly what?" Rodney crossed his arms over his chest.

"We disappear." John stated simply. Alice half rolled her eyes.

Caldwell looked confused, "Destroy the city, you mean?"

"No, we just make it look like we did."

"How?" Elizabeth raised her eyebrows.

Rodney clicks his fingers. Alice knew what he was about to suggest. "We cloak it."

Radek's face lit up, "Yes. Yes! The Puddle Jumpers are equipped with cloaking technology which renders them invisible to the naked eye, and to Wraith scans. If we just simply remove one of the cloak generators from the Puddle Jumper ..."

"Hang on a minute, it's not like pulling out a fluorescent lightbulb and replacing with an LED one, it wasn't made to do it." Alice eyed Rodney and Radek.

Rodney waved her off, "Well, I wouldn't say simply, but yes we should be able to." Rodney turned to the still confused Caldwell, "by interfacing a Jumper's stealth cloak generator with the city's shield, we should be able to render the city invisible."

"That's all well and good, but I think if the city were to suddenly disappear, they might be able to put one and one together." Caldwell countered.

Rodney smirked, "Which is why we fake a self-destruct. Have the Daedalus beam a nuke right above the city's shield, and then detonate it. While their sensors are blinded, we cloak the city; when the smoke clears ..."

Elizabeth smiled, "... nothing but ocean."

"What about hard radiation?" Caldwell still looked unconvinced.

"I should be able to calculate with reasonable accuracy how long to wait until we switch over to the cloak."

Radek turned his chair to Rodney, "But what about the displacement issue?"

"Well, it's coplanar emulation - that's the easy part!" Rodney argued back.

Alice rolled her eyes, "OK. But you're both forgetting the hard part..."

John looked accusingly at Rodney, "Hard part?"

Rodney shot Alice a glare, she just shrugged it was better to get it all out in the open. "Uh, the cloak for all intents and purposes will replace the shield, which means that we'll be completely unprotected once the cloak's activated." Rodney mumbled.

Alice raised her hand up to her head, a sharp pain drove through it. She inhaled sharply, John turned to glance at her but then turned back to the others.

She half listened to the rest of the conversation, then stood up to leave with Radek and Rodney.

John ran to catch up with them at the top of the stairs, "Riles, you sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine. Go get Ford." She was still annoyed with him, but she couldn't afford to let him sideline her.

"Riles..."

Alice stepped slightly closer, "John. Really, go. He needs you more than I do." She stepped back and placed her hands behind her standing up straight. "Is that everything, sir?"

He pursed his lips, Alice could tell he was deciding whether to order her to the infirmary or not. "Just don't get yourself hurt okay?" Alice nodded and turn to catch up to Rodney and Radek.

* * *

Alice was hitting her datapad against the side of the Jumper, "come on. Work!"

Radek looked up at her cautiously, "what's the problem?"

Alice gave her datapad one last good bash, "hah! It worked..." she stared in amazement down at her screen, Radek stepped away nervously. She tapped her comms piece, "we're ready up here Rodney!"

Alice tapped her foot, they were waiting for the green light from Elizabeth. Normally, Alice would want to be in the control room for this, but Rodney needed her here watching the Jumper's power output. There was no point to this plan if they couldn't sustain the cloak.

Suddenly the temperature in the air dropped, and silence engulfed them. The bombardment had stopped, she hadn't realised how loud it had been at this point.

Alice was wringing her hands together, Radek looked pale "Attention all personnel: prepare for detonation flash."

Alice jumped around and slammed all her equipment shut, and waited.

A loud bang sounded above her, she tensed as she prepared for the shock wave. The city trembled under her feet. She counted to 10 and then began opening her laptops again.

She waited, holding her breath as she watched the power spike indicating Rodney had activated the cloak. She checked her systems. Everything was within its limits and no fluctuations. She took in a deep breath and smiled, this was going to work.

Radek smiled at her and gestured to the power connections outside the Jumper. Alice nodded and passed him the Ancient scanner next to her.

She turned back to her laptop, she heard a scuffle and a loud thump. She instinctively reached for her gun, cursing when she realised she didn't have one. Footsteps grew louder and Ford appeared at the ramp of the jumper his gun held out at her.

"Ford!" Alice stared down the barrel, "what are you doing?"

Ford's gaze was intense and focused, he looked like he did when he had Carson up against the wall in Elizabeth's office. Alice slowly raised her hands up, "Ford" she tried again quietly.

Ford lowered his gun slightly, "stay out of my way Aly." He picked his bag off the floor and ran off towards the next Jumper.

Alice ran out of the Jumper behind him, Radek's body was limp on the floor, she knelt down and pressed her fingers to his neck, relieved when she felt the thumping of his heart. "Control, Ford is taking a Jumper!"

She stepped forward attempting to follow Ford, but she was too late. She watched helplessly as Ford's jumper activated and the floor opened up to the gateroom. He caught her eye as he disappeared down, Alice heard the gate activate and then he was gone.

Footsteps sounded behind her, "we need a medical team In the Jumper bay." She didn't even look up to see who it was, but she didn't recognise their voice.

Alice collapsed onto the floor. Resting her arms on her knees. She didn't know what to feel at the moment; relief, anger, grief or pain.

John and a set of medics ran over to where she was, she quickly raised her hand up, "i'm fine, It's Radek who got taken down." The medics nodded and began to work on the Czech scientist.

John knelt down next to her, placing a hand on hers "come on, let's get you out of here." Alice stared into his face, his eyebrows were set into a deep frown. He didn't look like he was in the mood for a fight, so Alice just meekly nodded and allowed John to pull her up and lead her towards the infirmary.

Carson gave her an exasperated look when John led her into the infirmary, "I thought I said to take it easy?" Alice's head was pounding and normally she would have tried to come up with a witty retort, but she was just too exhausted. She felt her eyes getting heavy and her body swayed underneath her.

"Woah there." John's hands moved to her waist and tightly held her upright.

"Get her onto the bed over here." Alice felt her feet being swept off the ground, and her face crashed into John's warm chest. His scent filled her nostrils and she slowly breathed it in, allowing herself to drift off to sleep.


	12. Chapter 12

**A/N Happy Easter everyone!**

 **Thank you to all the amazing people who have reviewed my story over the last couple of weeks. I hope you enjoy the latest chapter!**

Alice stood on the main balcony outside the control room. The city had seen better days, although they'd managed to put out all the fires the city still looked like it had only just been attacked. It was Alice's job now to oversee the repair teams and clear the rubble from where Darts had crashed into the city causing towers and corridors to collapse. It was chaos.

The sun had just begun to set. Alice was standing out on the main balcony, it was the first moment she'd had to herself all day. It seemed everywhere she went people needed her to oversee something or approve something. She wasn't used to having this much responsibility, it was honestly exhausting. She understood now why John avoided most people.

She sighed, John. In the moments she wasn't being overwhelmed with requests and questions, she was thinking about him. A few days ago John, Elizabeth, Rodney and Carson, along with other senior staff members were called back to Earth to debrief the IOA and Homeworld Security on the Pegasus expedition. They weren't due back for another month, but for John it could be indefinite. They'd been operating as their own entity for so long now it seemed abnormal to have to go back and deal with such trivial things like military regulations. The senior members of the expedition had done a great job over the last year and they should be allowed to keep doing so. At least that's what Alice quietly thought to herself.

She sighed again. Moping around wasn't exactly her style, but she hated being inactive and right now all they were doing were repairs and maintenance. All off-world exploration had been suspended until the Elizabeth returned. Though at least she had something to do during the day, before they left Carson had Alice confined to the infirmary. She'd only just been able to wiggle her way out the day before he left, there's no way she could have taken another day in there.

In her opinion, the only good thing to happen over the past week was the news that Evan would be remaining on Atlantis. And in Elizabeth and John's absence he'd been temporarily made acting head of the expedition.

She took in a deep breath, filling her lungs with the clean ocean air. She still found it difficult to process everything they'd been through over the past week; almost losing the city, restablishing contact with Earth, seeing Evan and losing Ford.

Ford's absence weighed on her like an anchor tied to her feet. There was nothing you could do, she said to herself for the millionth time. But it felt like a lie, she'd stood there and watched him take a jumper, true that he'd had his gun pointed at her but he never would have shot her. It was too late now to think about what ifs though. The best she could was keep her ear to the ground and when ensure all their allies knew to keep eyes out for Ford.

"I don't think I'll ever get used to this view." She jumped a little as Evan's voice shook her out of her thoughts. She turned to see him walking up to her staring out at the city.

"I know what you mean, it's breathtaking isn't it." She relaxed and rested her head down on her hands. Evan was like her own personal brand of pain-killer. Just being around him distracted her from the pain, loss and guilt she felt.

Evan took up the spot beside her, they stood in a comfortable silence for a few minutes. Then he turned his body towards Alice, leaning on the railing. "So, what is with you and military guys?"

Alice raised her eyebrow at him, the question completely took her by surprise "what are you on about?"

Evan gave her a deadpan look, "do I need to be blunt?"

Alice just continued to stare at him in confusion. Evan sighed, "fine, you asked for it..." he paused dramatically. "How long have you been banging Sheppard?"

Alice felt all the colour drain from her face. Her blood felt like ice and she stared in shock at Evan. How could he know? She quickly thoight to herself. "Wha...no...I..."

He smacked his lips together, "I'll give you a moment to collect yourself." He smirked and twisted back to look out at the city.

Alice's heart was beating fast, she wouldn't have been surprised if Evan could hear it from where he was standing. "How?" She asked simply.

"I have eyes Aly, and I saw you coming out of his room the day they left." Evan chuckled, "you were never good at sneaking around."

Damn, she knew they'd been risking it with all the new personnel filling up the base. Alice huffed and crossed her arms, "well no-one else seems to have figured it out."

"True" Evan conceded, he turned back to look at her. "But they don't know you like I do."

Alice sighed, she slumped her back and dropped her head into her hands. "Oh we're so screwed."

Evan put his hand on her back, "come on Aly, who do you think you're talking to." She looked up to see him smiling reassuringly at her. "Now, I can't say I fully agree with screwing your CO." Alice wrinkled her nose and frowned slightly. Evan smirked, "unless it's more than that..."

Alice was slightly taken back. Why would he think it was anything more?. She cleared her throat, "of course not."

Evan snorted, clearly not believing her. "I've seen how he looks at you Aly, get your head out of your ass. He cares about you." He paused, "a lot." He stressed out the words and gave her an obvious nudge.

Alice's throat went dry and she felt her blood slowly turn to ice. "What do you mean?!" Her voice was shrill.

Evan narrowed his eyes, "geez Als, why does commitment terrify you so much? One hint of the 'L' word and you can't get away fast enough." Evan shook his head, she knew he was thinking back to their relationship.

"That's not true..." Alice mumbled, she didn't know why she was trying to argue. He was right. She wasn't great at relationships, but love, pure romantic love. She would rather face a planet full of Wraith than let herself be that vulnerable.

"Really?" Evan asked sarcastically. "So tell me when was the last time you told someone you loved them?" Alice swallowed, a moment of silence passed between them. "See my point" Evan's shoulders slumped.

Alice felt her throat tighten, Evan exhaled loudly. "What's stopping you?"

She pursed her lips and swallowed the growing lump in her throat. She went for what she thought would be an obvious out. Something he couldn't argue with. "The military for one, an-"

"So quit." Evan interrupted.

Her jaw dropped to the floor. "What?!" She couldn't believe he said that.

"Leave the military." Evan repeated.

"I can't...I mean..." she stuttered, gesturing out to the city in front of them.

"Finish your doctorate, rejoin the expedition as a civilian scientist." Evan stated it like it was the simplest plan ever.

"Even if i could finish my degree, they don't just accept anyone into the programme." She shook her head and stepped backwards away from him.

"Really?" Evan scoffed, "You'd have a doctorate in astrophysics, hands on experience with Ancient technology and a truck load of references from existing expedition and SGC members. Not to mention specialist military training and invaluable knowledge of military operations. Tell me how you wouldn't stand a chance." Alice stared at him in awe, when he said it she actually believed it could be possible. "That's not the real problem though," Evan sucked in a breath through his teeth. "Do you love him? And what are you willing to do to be with him."

Aloce didn't know how to answer that. She wasn't sure she really believed in love, it seemed more mythical and fanstical than anything she had ever seen going through the gate.

"You can't keep him strung along forever. Riles." Smirking as he emphasised John's nickname for her. "You need to make a choice, be with him or dump him."

Alice thrashed in her bed, she let out a frustrated growl punching her pillow into shape and flopping back down onto it. She couldn't get Evan's words out of her head. Was she in love with him? Could she leave the military? Could she actually be in a real relationship? Did he love her? these questions all ran through her mind.

She'd never pictured herself as the love-struck teenager, gazing starry eyed after some man. But then Johm wasn't just some man. He made her feel safe, she felt like she could tell him anything. She reached out to the empty space next to her. Not having him here was more difficult than she anticipated. She'd never much felt lonely in her life, even before she'd joined the military. But loneliness ached within her now, she missed having John within arms reach from her. Sleeping next to him, his lopsided grin and messy hair.

She groaned and pulled her pillow over her face, she thought back to her goodbye with John.

Flashback

Alice drew herself up into a sitting position on John's bed, she twirled her fingers through loose pieces of hair that had fallen out of the bun she'd messily tied on her head. Her eyes were locked on John's bare torso, watching as he was busily gathered his things and stuffed them into a standard issue black duffel bag.

She wrapped the blanket tighter around her, "don't forget your SGC pass." She pointed to the white card that he'd unceremoniously discarded on top of a pile of paperwork. John reached over and slipped it into the pocket of his cargo pants. "So, how long are you going for again?"

John scratched his head and stopped moving around the room, "well, as far as I know at least a month. Three week trip on the Daedalus and maybe a week reporting back on our last year here." He sighed and tugged on his hair, stepping over a pile of clothes on the floor to sit down next to her. "Could be longer though or..." He reached up and brushed her hair back out of her face.

"Don't say it..." she narrowed her eyes at him. "You'll be back, they can't reassign you." She leaned forward and rested her head on his shoulder.

He placed his fingers under her chin and tilted it up so she was looking at him. "I've not exactly done a great job, and i'm still only a Major..." He trailed off. She knew what he was about to say. John was only a Major, in a normal situation Colonel Sumner would have been replaced by another high ranking officer. It was a very real possibility that John could have his command replaced and be reassigned somewhere back on Earth.

Alice touched the hand on her chin bringing it up to place a kiss on his knuckles, winking at him. "I'll try to keep Atlantis in one piece while you're away."

John smirked and rolled his eyes, "god help us."

Alice feigned hurt and smacked his shoulder. John caught her hand and twisted her arm around so her back was now facing him. He pulled her down so she was laying against his chest. She giggled, he hovered over her then lowered himself to press his lips against hers.

Alice let out a small moan of pleasure, but she pressed her head away from him. "As much as i want to, if we start this again you'll definitely miss your ride home."

John kissed her again chuckling, before lifting up her head so he could stand up. Alice shifted so she was sat with her back against the head of the bed, and continued to watch John pack up his things.

Just as John was putting the final things in his bag, Alice decided it was probably time for her to get up and get dressed. He closed the final zip on his bag just as she pulled her t-shirt over her head. John crept up behind her wrapping his arms around her waist and burying his face into the crook of her neck.

Alice smiled and reached up to run her hands through his hair. "I'll miss you Riles. Promise me you'll stay out of trouble?"

Alice sighed, "I'll do my best." She turned around in his arms and locked her behind his neck. "You just try not to insult any generals okay?"

He gave her his signature grin, "no promises." Picking up his bag he headed for the door, Alice following a few steps behind him. Just before he reached the door he turned around with a more solemn look on his face, "make sure you keep an eye out for signs of Ford, okay?"

Alice dropped her eyes to the floor, so far they'd heard nothing and she knew the likelihood of them ever hearing anything grew slimmer everyday. But she nodded anyway, she knew John still blamed himself for not being able to stop him from leaving. She couldn't say much though, she felt exactly the sam only, about herself.

He stepped forwards and kissed her forehead. "See you soon Riles."

End of flashback

There was once a point where Alice thought there would never be a dull day on Atlantis, there was so much to explore, and always something happening. The last couple of weeks though felt longer than the year they'd been here already. Alice was getting weary, the repairs were well underway now and didn't require much input from her anymore. Gate travel was still suspended, so Alice had tried to fill her time the best she could. This meant daily sparring sessions with Teyla and the other marines, catching up on all the latest films with Evan or sitting and finding some untranslated part of the ancient database to read through.

It wasn't just her that was feeling this, she could tell the others around her, especially the military personnel were starting to get a bit stir-crazy. She'd mentioned it to Evan, he'd suggested they organise recreational groups or activities to help people pass the time. This seemed to be helping a bit.

Tonight, she was running. Another thing Evan had brought with him, besides a year's worth of films, was an iPod. She had "borrowed" this about a week ago and had absolutely no intentions of returning it. With music blasting in her ear she stepped up her pace and sprinted down a particularly long corridor. Even though they'd been here a year, they'd still only explored a fraction of the city. Today she was running a new route, mainly because the Wraith attack had collapsed a corridor blocking her regular route.

She reached the end of the hall and stopped, holding her hands up to absorb the impact as she hit the wall. Her breath was coming in short gasps, sweat was dripping down her forehead. She kicked the wall, normally running was her cure. It helped her clear her mind. But it's effectiveness seemed to be wearing off.

In the last couple of weeks she'd barely slept, as everytime she was alone all she could think about was Evan's words. Then if she did fall asleep she had nightmares about Ford.

She was dreading the day John returned, she knew Evan was right. She couldn't keep their relationship switching between on-and-off. But her feelings still confused her. Normally she would end things, cut things off before she felt herself slipping into that dark abyss. This was different though, she hadn't even noticed herself slipping. Everyday without him near made her chest ache a little bit more.

The cold wall felt good against her back as she stared down the long, empty hall. "God damn it Alice, what have you got yourself into." She whispered to herself. She hated feeling this dependent on someone else, it wasn't like her.

Alice decided to jog up past the control room on her way back, she was just passing through the gateroom as something suddenly caught her eye. She ducked quickly before it could hit her face.

She ripped her headphones out of her ears and looked down at the object. It was a rubber stress ball, she looked up furiously to the upper balcony to see Evan grinning down at her. "I tried to call you!" He shouted down at her. Then his face turned serious, "We need you up here." He turned back and walked towards the control room.

Alice bounded up the stairs and jogged over quickly to join him in Elizabeth's office. "What's up?" She lent over the desk.

Evan tugged on her headphone cord, "well, first I'd really like this back." Alice stuck her tongue out and stuck the iPod down her sports bra. "Don't think I won't go there."

Alice rolled her eyes and crossed her arms, "what is it?"

Evan shook his head, "we just got a communique from Earth, i thought you might want to read it." He tapped a few keys then held up a datapad.

She looked at him curiously, they hadn't heard much from Earth really. Certainly nothing interesting enough for Evan to share with her. She took the datapad hesitantly and started reading. "Oh my god!" She squealed.

Evan laughed, "told you." Alice re-read the passage, she was grinning so much her cheeks were starting to hurt. John was not only coming back to Atlantis, but he'd been promoted to Lt. Colonel.

Alice jumped up and hugged Evan. "I take this means you made up your mind." He wrapped his arms around her.

"Actually, until i read this I hadn't." Alice admitted. "Looks like they're just about to get on the Daedalus. Hope you haven't gotten too comfortable behind that desk." Alice smirked.

She let go of him and flopped down into one of the sofa chairs. "Don't worry, i don't think i'm ready to be leading this expedition...just yet." Evan sat down opposite her, slightly more dignified, "what's the update on repairs?"

"Things are moving slowly, but we're getting there. There's still a lot of damage down in the western edge." Alice tapped her fingers on the arm of the sofa. "Fresh coat of paint though and no one will no the difference." She winked and pushed herself up. "I'll see you tonight?"

Evan nodded, "yep." He deliberately popped his 'p'. "We're watching the latest Star Wars! So don't be late." She waved and took the iPod back out and continued her jog back to her quarters.

Alice would be going crazy, three weeks cooped up on the Daedalus sounded like a nightmare.

John had sent her a message the first night of his journey back, it was short, just checking in on the city and if he'd missed any juicy gossip. She'd sent back a similar short reply, keeping it as formal as possible and congratulating him on his promotion. They couldn't afford to be careless now, anyone could go through the communications log and pull up their messages.

If she'd thought things had been moving slowly before, the next three weeks had been torturous. Each night Alice had stood in front of her mirror and tried practicing what she was going to say to John. Though it had always come out wrong, and she'd had to restrain herself from breaking the glass in frustration.

The lack of sleep was starting to catch up to her, she was thriving off coffee and jello. John was supposed to be back tomorrow and she was no closer to figuring out what to say. But what was important was that she had a plan. She'd run it past Evan and he'd been thrilled. She just had to wait till Rodney and Elizabeth were back to see if it would even be possible.

This morning however, she was in Rodney's lab with Radek as she had been all night, they were going through all the data they'd collected on previously inert systems that were now active thanks to the ZPM.

She had her head resting on her hand and blankly scrolling through a ton data. It would take years to go through all of it, groaning she pushed the laptop away and stood up to stretch out. "I can't believe it's morning." She yawned, "I'm going to get a snack, you want anything?" Radek shook his head, Alice shrugged and headed towards the mess hall.

"Captain Riley! Doctor Zalenka! Please report to the control room." Alice froze as Chuck's voice came through the tannoy. She swivelled around and ran towards the closest transporter, dumping her coffee mug on a nearby table. Making a mental note to come back and clear it up later.

"What's going on?!" She jumped up the last few steps to the control room.

"The Daedalus has dropped out of hyperspace." Chuck informed her.

"What? I thought they weren't supposed to be back ?"

Evan was jogging across the gantry, "they stepped up the pace apparently, they should be ready to beam down in the next hour."

Alice looked down at herself quickly, she was still in the same clothes she had been wearing yesterday, and they were just about sticking to her. Evan snickered, Alice snapped her head up to glare at him, he then lifted his hand up and pretended he'd been coughing. "I'll be right back!" She yelled as she took off back down the stairs.

She ran back to her room as fast as she could pushing people out of her way as she went. She started stripping off her clothes before her doors had closed properly. Taking the quickest shower possible, she rubbed herself dry with her towel and rummaged through her draws for fresh clothes.

Not that she had much choice, but she threw on her day to day uniform and grabbed her jacket off the back of her chair. She quickly checked her reflection in the mirror, tieing her hair back into a pony tail before running out and back up to the control room. "Move! Move, move!" She jumped past people walking in the corridors.

Her heart was pounding, she skidded into the gateroom. Once she came to a stop she took a deep breath and straightened herself out. Evan was watching her with an amused look. "Say nothing." She held up a finger to his face, taking up her spot next to him and clasping his arms behind her back.

Teyla walked down the stairs from the control room, "they'll be beaming down momentarily." She took the position on the other side of Evan. Alice took in a few more breaths, trying to calm her rapid heart beat, and waited.

A bright white light signified their arrival "Doctor Weir, Doctor McKay, Doctor Beckett, welcome back" Teyla stepped forward to greet them, giving John a warm smile "-- and Lieutenant Colonel Sheppard! Congratulations." She tilted her head down to the side in respect.

Alice and Evan, however, were stood with their jaws almost on the floor. Alice's eyes looked John up and down twice, both John and Rodney were covered in a massive bright red sunburn.

John ignored the looks from Evan and Alice, "Thank you. Anything happen while we were gone?" He tried to keep his voice as casual as possible. Alice pursed her lips trying not to burst out laughing, Evan cleared his throat trying to keep himself under control.

Teyla gave the two of them a reproachful look, Alice snorted and had to look down at the ground. "There has been no sign of the Wraith. It would appear that they continue to believe that Atlantis has been destroyed, but I understand that your trip was not so happily uneventful."

"No, not exactly." Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at Evan and Alice. Though Alice could tell she wasn't genuinely annoyed.

Rodney was scratching his nose, then started staring at his hand in horror. "My nose is peeling!" He shrieked turning to Carson, "Do you have that moisturiser?" That's when Alice lost it.

She clutched her stomach and giggled hard. Evan joined in. "Oh grow up!" Rodney grunted at them, this only made them laugh harder.

John shook his head and started walking up the stairs behind Teyla. Evan went to follow, clearing his throat and taking a deep breath to control his laughter.

"It's great to have you back Elizabeth!" She called after them. Elizabeth turned to wave and give her a warm smile.

Alice stood their a moment longer rolling on the balls of her feet. Then she bolted off to the infirmary.

"Rodney!" She pushed past a few of the medics who were cleaning up one of the recently vacated beds.

"Oh hey Aly." He was staring into a mirror and lathering a handful of white cream onto his sunburn.

Alice swallowed to stop herself from laughing. "Sorry to jump on you straight away, but I had a really quick question for you." She waited for him to look up at her, but he kept his focus on his face. She cleared her throat, "it's kinda serious too."

Rodney huffed and turned face her, "what is it?" He gave her an exasperated look.

Ignoring his temper she licked her lips in anticipation, "if i wanted to -hypothetically- complete my doctorate, would you be willing to help me do it? And how long do you think it would take?" She blurted out in one breath.

Rodney stared at her in astonishment, "uh.." he said lamely. "Well, it depends, how many credits do you have left to complete?"

Alice was feeling more nervous now, "about 40?"

Rodney nodded, his face was sullen and Alice felt her heart dropping. "Well with me as your mentor i'd say we'd be able to get it done before the end of the year." He smirked cockily, but Alice didn't care at this point. She lunged at him wrapping him into a big hug.

"Thanks Rodney!" She pulled back and wiped her face slightly, poking her tongue out in disgust as she realised she'd gotten some of Rodney's cream on her face. "Gross..."

Rodney sneered and went back to lathering himself. Alice grabbed a towel of the side and wiped her facing, racing back out of the Infirmary. "Sorry Carson." She yelled over her shoulder as she careened out of the doorway almost knocking the scottish doctor to the ground.

She raced back to the gateroom and as she expected Elizabeth was now alone in her office. She slowed down and tried to calmly walk across the gantry and knocked on the door. "Captain! Come in." Elizabeth was organising and unpacking things on her desk.

"I hope Evan didn't mess up your desk too much." She walked in the room and closed the door behind her.

Elizabeth smiled and looked down at the papers spread out, "no, not at all. Just straight back into everything, you know how it is. What can i do for you?"

"Well, I thought i'd ask how your trip back to Earth went first of?" Alice took a seat down on the sofa. Elizabeth looked at her curiously and walked over to take the other seat.

"It was...interesting. Glad to be home." She looked warmly around her office. "Now. Tell me why you've really come to see me."

Alice shuffled forward, rubbing her slightly sweaty palms on her pants. "Um...i have a hypothetical situation i wanted to run past you."

Elizabeth raised her eyebrows intrigued, "okay?"

Alice bit her lip, "say if one of your military personnel decided to finish their doctorate and then soon afterwards was discharged from the military. How...would..." she struggled to find the right words, Elizabeth was watching her intently. "W...what would the chances be of them being allowed to rejoin the expedition as a civilian scientist?"

Her heart was pounding as Elizabeth considered her question. "Well, if that member of my team had incredibly invaluable skills that would be detrimental to the expedition if she...they" she corrected, "weren't allowed to return." She straightened up "and since I'm in charge of all the civilian personnel, I think they'd stand a pretty good chance." She put her hand on Alice's knee and smiled warmly at her.

Alice sighed in relief, she beamed at Elizabeth. "Thank you Elizabeth."

Elizabeth smiled back, "is there anything I need to know about Alice? Are you having any trouble?"

Alice shook her head, "I'm great, just think it's time to make some changes."

Elizabeth nodded and then stood up. "Whatever you decide to do, this is your home and we'll always be here for you."

Alice felt slightly overwhelmed at Elizabeth's words. She smiled and started heading out of the room. "Does Colonel Sheppard know?"

Elizabeth's words made Alice stop and look back towards her. "Not yet, but I'd like to tell him. If that's okay?"

Elizabeth nodded and Alice continued out over the gantry. She walked past Evan in the control room, "she said yes!" She whispered lowly as she passed him.

He whipped his head around grinning at her and made a mini fist pump behind the console so the other technicians couldn't see.

Now was the hard part, the part she'd been dreading for three weeks... she had to speak to John. "Captain Riley, please report to the briefing room."

Alice stepped back up the stairs, "i'm right here Chuck." She pointed to herself, the technician looked slightly embarrassed.

She rolled her eyes and walked across to the conference room. "Colonel" she stood at attention and saluted Colonel Cauldwell, then turned to John, "Colonel." She allowed a hint of a smile creep on her face as she looked at his burnt face.

Evan walked in behind her and greeted the two senior officers. "Major. Captain. Please take a seat." Cauldwell gestured to the empty seats across from him. Alice pulled out the chair and sat down as straight as she could. John was slumped in his chair as usual. "Colonel, would you?" Cauldwell gestured to John when they were both sat down.

"Sure, why not." John smirked. Alice had a sense of foreboding. "We've got a bunch of newbies joining the expedition, some have been recruited from SG teams, others are straight out of the academy. I'm going to be taking the veterans through their paces" John paused and opened his palms to Alice and Evan. "We'd like you two to take on a group each and train up the newcomers" his smirk grew wider.

Alice had to suppress her groan. Training a group of newbies was going to be torture. "Yes sir, can't wait." She said with fake enthusiasm.

"That's all then. You'll meet your groups tomorrow." John gave them a lopsided grin and dismissed them.

Alice couldn't get out of the room quick enough. "Ugh, great. I can't believe we're on babysitting duty." Alice huffed as her and Evan crossed back towards the gateroom.

"Hey, sometimes the rookies turn out to be okay." He nudged her shoulder playfully.

Alice sneered, "you just got lucky!

"Alright, incase no one has said it yet...welcome to Atlantis!" Alice held her arms out wide to the room full of new recruits. Most of them were either enlisted personnel or ranked below Captain, the few that were her rank were going to be part of Evan's group. Though she would still hold seniority on them whilst they were part of the expedition - until she resigned that is.

The room clapped, there were a couple of loud cheers as well. She grinned and waited till they died down. "Now, all of you should have been assigned a group leader. Which will either be Major Lorne here" she gestured to Evan, "or me."

"We're going to show you around the city, evaluate your skills and then decide where you'll be best suited. Whether that is security, SG teams or incursion forces." Evan stepped up addressing the room. "Let's get started then, please report in to your assigned team leader." Evan handed Alice a datapad that had the full manifest of her new team.

She moved over to the other side of the room and started checking people's names off as they reported in. She recognised a couple of the names and faces as she ticked them off, either from working in the SGC or from the Daedalus. "Lt. Laura Cadman." A blonde marine that Alice didn't recognise stepped up to her, smiling widely.

"Welcome aboard Lt." Alice smiled back and ticked her name, she was the last one in her group. "Alright," she looked at the group of 20 soldiers, a mix of marines and air force personnel, around her. "Let's head out!"

Alice sat in her room pacing up and down. As much as she'd missed John and was thankful to have him back. It had also been awful. The first couple of days they'd had no time to themselves, Alice had been busy with her new recruits, as well as helping Elizabeth and John get up to speed on everything that they'd missed. Not to mention the halls were now twice as crowded with new personnel and the Daedalus crew, so stealing even a few seconds wasn't worth the risk. John had come by the first night he was back, just briefly to say a proper hello. He'd only stayed a maximum of five minutes, if that.

John's sunburn had also closed the book on any physical reunions that both of them had had in mind, at least until he'd healed a bit more. So, a week went past with only brief conversations in the halls or over crowded tables in the cafeteria. Nothing substantial, and it was driving her crazy. Nightimes were her best shot, but it turns out the Daedalus crew seemed to operate on their own time zone and their "day" was Atlantis' night. You couldn't go anywhere nowadays without being seen.

Each day that went past without being able to speak to John was causing an unhealthy amount of anxiety to bubble under her.

Tonight was different though, Colonel Cauldwell had the Daedalus crew running training simulations for most of the night, so only the usual night crew would be roaming Atlantis. Nothing John and her hadn't dealt with before. John had given her the heads up over , hinting it would be a great time for a night stroll.

Despite how much she'd wanted to get this off her chest, now the time was finally upon her. She wanted nothing more than to go and hide in her quarters. Man up Alice, she thought to herself. She stared at herself in the mirror.

There was a knock on her door, she felt like she might actually be sick. Pursing her lips and she hesitated a moment before opening it. She sighed in relief at Evan stood there, she grabbed his shirt and pulled him into her room. "I can't do it!" She panicked.

Evan looked at her in confusion at her sudden outburst, before understanding crossed his face. "Take a deep breath Aly-cat." He brought her into a hug, "come on, it's like ripping off a band-aid. You'll feel a lot better once you've done it."

Alice was taking in short, small breaths. "You're right, but i've never done this before."

Evan chuckled, "trust me, i know." Alice pulled away from him frowning, "come on, we never would have worked out, though I can't say I wouldn't have liked to see you freaking out about me like this." He let her go and smiled softly down at her.

"Evan...you mean so much to me. You really do, it's just..."

Evan held his hand up, "All you need to do is tell him you want something serious. And don't worry Als, I don't see you like that anymore." He stepped forward and kissed the top of her head. "Now go!" He put on a serious face and pointed at the door.

Alice groaned and stomped her way out of the room, she heard Evan chuckling behind her. She counted every step to John's quarters to keep her mind busy. Slowing down as she finally reached his door. She bit down on her finger and swivelled on her feet. "Don't be a wimp." She whispered to herself and shot her arm out quickly to activate the door chime.

"Come in!" She took in a deep breath as she opened the door and stepped in. John was dumping the contents of his dufflebag onto his bed. He looked up to see her enter, his eyes brightening slightly. "Riles!"

Alice raise her eyebrows, "you're only just unpacking?" She looked at the mess around the room. Generally John was a clean guy, but his room now was a state.

"No," he scrunched up his face, "well technically yes. I mean, I may have brought a few extra things back with me."

Alice walked over to his desk and picked up a bottle of wine, "you mean smuggled?" she cast a glance at all the other contraband that was now scattered around his room.

John smirked at her, "well, that's actually for us."

Alice put the bottle back down, "actually, that's what i wanted to talk to you about."

John froze and slowly lowered what he had in his hands onto the bed and turned to face her. "Everything okay?" He asked precariously.

Alice bit her lip, "it's just...i've been thinking alot about us" she gestured back and forth between the two of them. "And...um." She flailed her arms about a little.

She took in a deep breath and put her hands on her hips, "god this is going so bad. I've never done this before." She admitted. John looked nervous, confused and amused at the same time. Alice tugged on her hair, "okay...i've decided i'm going to resign from the military." She bit on her lip hard as she waited for John's reaction.

She waited a few moments, John was staring at her blankly. Alice's stomach felt like it was in her throat, "are you...um..." John's eyes darted between them and down to the floor, "are you sure about this? Alice this is huge."

Alice nodded, "i know, believe me this isn't something I've decided lightly. But i think this is the right thing for me." She took in a deep breath, "and... it would mean we can actually give this a real go." She gestured between her and him.

John took a step back, "hold up a sec, if you leave the military they're not just going to let you stay on Atlantis."

Alice smiled softly, "Rodney has agreed to help me finish my doctorate, and Elizabeth has maybe unofficially already told me she would allow me to return to Atlantis as a civillian scientist."

John looked shocked, "Riles, you don't need to do this. I won't let you do this just for us."

Alice had expected this, during the weeks she'd been thinking this through she knew that it really was the right thing for her. "John, this is what I want. The only reason I joined the military in the first place was because they paid for my degree." She straightened up. "It's also about time i finished my doctorate. And we can't have anything real until one of us is out of uniform." Her voice grew slightly higher pitched, she was desperate that he understood. But even if he didn't she didn't need his approval.

John rubbed the back of his neck, "This is huge Riles. I mean what if it -us- doesn't work."

Alice shrugged, "then you would have just been the catalyst to something I should have done a long time ago." Alice felt a bit unsure now, "do you want to give this a shot?"

John's eyes snapped up to her face, "of course i do. But, i'm not exactly the best at..." he cringed slightly, "relationships."

Alice laughed softly, "I'm not exactly the best at them either. In fact, what we have is the closest i think i've ever come."

John seemed slightly stunned about that, then he cringed and dropped his gaze to the floor, "i was married once, it didn't exactly end well."

Alice's eyes grew wide "i guess we really don't know much about each other. Do we?"

John looked back up, Alice smirked, "I mean about our lives before the expedition, and outside of the SGC." She added before he could make a smart comment.

John smirked and took a step towards her. "so, what's the plan then?"

Alice grinned, Evan was right she was so much happier now that she'd ripped the band-aid off.

Alice had been training the recruits for a full week now. They were fast learners and Alice had developed a strong connection to most of them. Lt. Cadman in particular. Today, they headed out of the central city to the eastern pier. "You're first challenge is a little game called capture the Wraith." A marine appeared around the corner wheeling out a gun rack full of intars. "Major Lorne has taken his team to the other side of this pier, you're mission is to infiltrate their base and capture the Wraith they're holding hostage. He has key information needed to save Atlantis, so we need him alive!" Alice shouted at the rookies. She could see the looks of excitement spreading on their faces.

"You will each be equipped with an intar" she grabbed one of the guns from the rack, "they will stun anyone you shoot, it hurts like a bitch. If you're hit you return here, and you're out of the game. Understood?" Alice scanned the group. "Great! Load up people." She held up her hand, "oh, and i have a good case of scotch riding on this game. So you better win." She winked at them and moved aside.

Her team were ready and waiting for the signal, "you ready Evan?" She tapped her earpiece.

"You bet."

Alice switched over to internal comms, "on your marks, get set...go!" The group ran off from her into the city. She watched them laughing and grinning. She jumped up and down then ran off to watch from the little control centre they'd created to monitor the game.

"So, you really think your team stands a chance?" Evan smirked at her as she entered the room.

"That case of scotch you got from Earth is going to look great empty on my floor." She quipped back looking down at the monitors. She was relieved to see that her group had organised themselves into teams and designated team leaders.

John walked in behind them, sitting down in the empty seat. He slumped into it putting his feet up on the desk and pulled out an apple. Alice rolled her eyes at him. "Who you got your bets on?" Evan asked John.

He'd been overseeing their training the last few days, "you'll just have to wait and see."

The next hour they watched as Alice's team planned their attack on Evan's team base. So far there had only been a few casualties, but the main attack was about to begin. Alice sat forward in her chair watching the screen intently. She watched the team commanders give the signal and they stormed the base, taking out Evan's defenses and capturing the 'Wraith.'

"Yes!" Alice jumped out of her seat, "suck it!" She stuck her tongue out at Evan who was slumped in his chair.

"Real mature Aly cat." Evan pouted slightly.

John chuckled, Alice felt her heart flutter slightly. "Nice work Riles, looks like they're ready. Have you got the team recommendations?"

Alice and Evan nodded, "sent to your datapad."

John smiled, "great, let's get back to work then."


	13. Chapter 13

**A/N Sorry this chapter has taken so long to get up. I also have to apologise for any typos or weird formatting, i had to write, edit and upload this on my phone as my laptop has officially died.**

 **Hope you enjoy! You get to find out a little more about Alice's background in this one.**

Alice stretched out, Evan and her where in the gym just finishing up a sparring session. "Great to know somethings are still the same in this galaxy." Evan laughed.

Alice was in a bad mood, she'd been too distracted and let Evan get the upper hand. "Yeah, yeah. If you didn't have to leave for a mission, I'd pay you back for that last one." She rubbed her side, she could tell already it was going to leave a nasty bruise.

Evan just laughed and headed out of the gym. Alice finished shoving her stuff into her bag and stomped out of the gym, "Sheppard!" her eyes brightened as she recognised the messy brown hair.

"Morning Riles." He smiled down at her and slowed his pace to allow her to catch up. "You studying today?"

Alice rolled her eyes, they'd already had this conversation this morning in her room. But they still had to keep up appearances for the time being. "Yes sir, just got to hit the showers first." She saw a mischievous look cross John's face.

He leaned down slightly closer to her face, "if you need any help..." his eyes flickered down to look at her chest.

Alice shoved him and stepped into her doorway, "see you later, Colonel." She stressed out his rank as she spoke.

Once she'd showered and changed she headed down to Rodney's lab to focus on her lastest assignment. Rodney wasn't exactly the best teacher she'd ever had, but he was the most determined. The only downside to this was he had her working at every free moment she had, she'd only been able to swing in the gym session cause she'd made John tell him that keeping in shape was a key requirement of her job.

Luckily, John and Elizabeth had also been helping by allowing extra downtime between missions so she could get her studying time in. At this rate, she'd be done in no time, and the biggest benefit was with her disposable Atlantis income she'd been able to fund the rest of her degree without support from the Air Force.

Today Rodney had her going over the basics of relativity. It was tedious and pointless, Alice felt like she could recite the theory in her sleep by now. But anytime she voiced this Rodney would just give her a deadpan look and say 'who has the phd here…'. She was fully prepared for another day of gruelling of basics, but they'd only been at it for a few hours, when they got a call over the internal comms system to report to the conference room.

"Come on Rodney." Alice was tapping her foot in the doorway, Rodney hadn't moved from his work station. She looked down at her watch impatiently, they'd received the call 5 minutes ago now. She waved her hand dismissively at him, "I'll just meet you there."

Alice ran to the conference room, she knew John was going to give her 'the glare' for being late. At least she wasn't going to be the last. Alice rushed into the room, it looked like Evan had just finished giving his report and as if on cue, John gave her the glare. She gave him and Evan an abashed look and slipped into a chair.

John shook his head ever so slightly and turned back to Evan who was trying not to smirk, "Is the Gate covered?"

Evan nodded, "Coughlin and Reed, yeah."

Teyla entered the room, Alice crossed her arms as John just gestured to her. "We found a dead Wraith. Shot several times." Alice blew a piece of hair out of her face, she was here earlier than Teyla and she didn't get given the summary.

Evan looked like he was struggling to keep a smile off his face watching Alice's reactions. "Looked like bullets, but it's hard to say. The guy was a mess."

Teyla looked concerned, "The Genii use such weapons."

Elizabeth's face echoed Teyla's concern. "Doctor Beckett is performing an autopsy." The doors slid open and at that moment, Carson stepped in. "Oh! Here he is now."

Carson looked slightly flushed and out of breath "I'm not done -- not nearly, but I thought you might like to know this. The enzyme sac on the right arm has been removed."

John and Alice both straightened up. "Ford!"

Rodney choose this moment to lazily stride into the room. He looked around obliviously "What's going on?"

John rolled his eyes "Thanks for coming, Rodney."

Rodney's eyes widen, "What? I was right in the middle of a ..." his voice was coming out in a squeak.

Elizabeth interrupted Rodney's blabbering, "P3M-736. We found a dead Wraith, maybe killed by Ford."

John was on his feet now, "He could still be there."

"Whoa, wait a second." Rodney held up his hand and looked at Elizabeth "736? The U.V. index there during the day is something like a thousand."

John headed for the door, slapping Rodney on the shoulder as he passed. "Bring your sunscreen. Be ready in ten minutes."

Rodney hesitated. Everyone was staring at him with their eyebrows raised. Alice couldn't believe him sometimes.

Rodney looked around at them confused, "What?! I wanna get Ford back just as much as everyone else, but do you see my complexion?"

"Yes." Teyla stated bluntly following John out of the room.

Alice rolled her eyes and stood up to follow Evan out. "Yes, it's very fair!" Alice heard Rodney call out after them.

Alice jogged to the armoury and started strapping her gear on. She was just clipping on her P90 when a very pissed John walked in, she exchanged a look with Evan. He looked at her expectantly, all she could was shrug with wide eyes and complete her final equipment check. "We're ready to move out when you are, sir." She addressed John, he just grunted. "Okay" Alice said to herself and headed to the Jumper bay alone.

Alice flew the jumper through the gate and landed it in a clearing not far from the waiting marines. Before she'd landed John had stood up and activated the HUD. "Life signs detector's useless." He'd barely said anything to the team since he'd arrived in the armoury.

"I told you so." Alice was seething, Rodney really just didn't know when to shut up.

"Just preserving your streak of being right officially?" John quipped back sarcastically.

"Doctor Parrish believes that the indigenous plant life retains enough residual radioactivity absorbed during the daylight to, um, well, to screw up our sensors." Rodney still sounded like he would have preferred to stay back in Atlantis.

"Making it the perfect place to hide." He opened the rear door with Evan.

"Yes -- or the perfect place to be exposed to dangerously high levels of solar radiation!" Rodney shouted after him.

Alice stood up, checking that John was out of ear shot and bashed him painfully in the shoulder with her elbow, "ow!"

"What's your problem?" She glared at him fiercely. "Improve the attitude McKay or i swear you won't be leaving this jumper in one piece."

Rodney gulped and nodded slowly. She whipped her head around and stormed out of the cockpit. Evan was checking in with his men as Alice approached, John gestured out to the forest, "Start a sweep -- teams of two. Radio contact every twenty minutes."

Alice sniffed and turned to see Rodney smearing sunscreen over his face.

John turned around too, "How come it smells like I'm on vacation?"

Rodney smiled smugly, "Mmm, could it be the simulated tropical aroma of cocoa butter?"

Alice gave him a deadpan look, "really?"

"Strong enough for anyone within five miles to smell you." John's voice was tense.

"Like they haven't been tipped off by the Aqua Velva?" Rodney scoffed.

John ignored Rodney's comment, Alice pretended to look in the forest as she hid a small smile "It's dark."

Alice watched the other marines take off into the forest as Rodney kept blathering on about the UV rays. She was sure if it was him they were searching for, he wouldn't be worried about the rays.

"Teyla, you're with me; Coughlin, take Billick; Reed: you and Sherman cover the Gate" John turned to Evan and Alice "and Riles, Major," he smirked slightly, "you've got McKay."

"Oh, lucky me!" Evan said over enthusiastically.

Alice groaned, the last thing she wanted right now was to be stuck with Rodney. "Thanks sir." She murmured through gritted teeth. John nodded briskly and disappeared into the forest.

Rodney held out the tub inbetween Evan and her "Here, try some. S.P.F. 100."

Alice gave him a hard stare, "i swear Rodney if you're not ready to move out in 10 seconds."

* * *

Rodney, Alice and Lorne were walking along through the dense undergrowth. Alice had all her senses on high alert trying to listen for anything that might indicate another presence.

"So exactly what kind of, uh, special training do you guys have to go through to get this sort of mission?" Rodney was breathing heavy and kept stopping to occasionally rest against a tree.

Alice turned her head, "'You guys'?"

"Yeah, you know -- Army, Navy, Air Force, Marines -- it's a great place to start!" He was panting pretty hard now.

Evan slowed his pace slightly, allowing Rodney to catch up slightly, "And by 'this mission' you mean hunting down a skilled weapons expert hopped up on Wraith drugs in the pitch black of an alien planet?"

"Yes!"

Evan stared at him for a second then resumed walking, Alice knew Rodney was starting to get on his nerves. But always the professional, he'd never show it "Actually, I skipped that course in major school."

"Yeah, I was afraid of that."

Alice swung her torchlight around on the ground in front of her. She tried to tune Rodney out and focus on her search. Out of her peripheral vision she saw Evan stop and raise his fist. Quickly without thinking she dropped down.

Rodney was turning around looking at Alice and then Evan, "What -- that means quiet, right?"

"Get down, get down, get down!" Evan whispered harshly, Alice stepped forward and gripped Rodney's collar pulling him down. Evan switched off his light and Alice did the same. She narrowed her eyes in the direction Evan was looking, she couldn't make anything out.

Rodney, however, decided to shine his torch in the direction they were looking, "What? What?" Alice snatched the torch off him and hoped her face was harsh enough to shut him up.

They crouched there for a moment longer, Alice moved forward staying low until she was up next to Evan, "I thought I saw something move." He whispered to her. Evan gestured forward with his gun and raised his eyebrows expectantly at her.

Alice sighed and ripped her hat off her head so she could run her fingers through her hair. "Hey Ford! Is that you?" She called out into the darkness. "We're only here to help, we want you to come home."

Evan looked around at Rodney and cocked his head forward.

"What?" Rodney's eyes were wide.

"Say something!" Evan hissed.

"Well, what?"

"Anything!" Alice whispered at him.

"What if it's not him?"

Evan grabbed him hauling him to his feet. Rodney stepped forward nervously, "Ford? You there? It's your ... best friend Rodney, Rodney McKay. Everyone misses you back in Atlantis, and Doctor Beckett's figured out a way to help you, so you've just gotta trust me and ..."

Alice and Evan both had their guns raised and swept a wide arc around them, she strained her ears trying to hear anything.

Suddenly a twig snapped and then heavy footsteps sounded heading away from them. Alice didn't hesitate, she took off after it. "Alice!" Evan shouted at her before she could hear him running after her.

Alice felt like she wasn't gaining any ground, she dug her feet in harder trying to push herself faster. She could hear Evan reporting into John. Just as the radio cut out, Alice stopped running. She switched her light back on and aimed it in front of her.

She heard Evan approach behind her, following by a lumbering panting Rodney. "What happened?"

"Lost him." He activated his radio, "Colonel Sheppard."

"Stand by." Alice tensed, "Teyla's been hit."

"Colonel Sheppard, say again. What's your position?" Evan looked up hopelessly at Alice, "Colonel Sheppard, please respond."

Alice tapped her own radio, "Shepprd! Come in" there was no reply.

Evan looked around them cautiously, "alright, fall back to the gate." Rodney didn't even hesitate before heading back the way they came. Alice paused, she bit her lip and stared out into the forest. "Now Captain."

Of course Evan knew what she'd be thinking, and with John MIA he was now ranking officer. Alice hesitated a moment longer before spinning around and brushing past Evan.

Alice grabbed a water bottle from the Jumper's supply crate and gulped down a few sips. Evan was reporting in to Elizabeth. She slumped down onto the bench seat. She'd tried radioing John and Teyla a few more times since they'd made it back to the Jumper, still nothing.

"You okay?" Evan walked back through from the cockpit.

"Just fine" She stood up and moved out of the jumper.

"Aly! There was nothing we could do."

Alice stopped and turned back to him, "i know Evan, but every moment we're just stood here doing nothing they could be..." her throat tightened.

Evan gave her a sympathetic look, "do i need to send you back?"

Alice shook her head, "I can stay focused."

Evan's eyes searched her face before he nodded briefly and walked over to the marines who'd just come through the gate. "OK, listen up. I want regular radio contact. Report anything unusual -- and I'm talking anything unusual at all. Alright, move out."

Alice stuffed an extra clip into her vest pocket and looked at the team Evan had assigned her. "Okay, you heard the man." She readjusted her cap and they headed out for their search path.

"Sheppard, Teyla. Please come in." Alice tried her radio for what felt like the millionth time. Nothing but static replied.

She sighed, her two team members were carefully clearing the area to her left and right. "Okay, lets continue forward for another-"

Rodney's voice came screaming through the radio "Mayday! Mayday! We are under attack! Lorne's been hit! I repeat -- we are under Wraith attack!"

Alice froze, "Rodney! Repeat, what's your position??" Her radio was silent again, "shit..."

"Ma'am, the Major's team should be in this direction." The marine gestured with his gun off to the right.

Alice bit her lip, "alright let's go." She pressed down on her radio, "attention all teams, continue your search for Colonel Sheppard and Teyla. We're heading for Major Lorne."

* * *

Alice and her team were trying to hastily make their way to Evan's position. Her breathing was starting to labour, moving fast through this dense brush was hard work. Her team members were doing well to keep up.

Automatic weapons fire sounded off to her left, she stopped immediately and signalled for the others to as well. "That was definitely P90 fire." One of the marines said, Alice thought his name was Markson.

Alice thought quickly, that had to be from John and Teyla - or maybe Ford. Evan's team had been too far east for them to get this close already. She'd made up her mind, "you two keep going, find the Major. I'm going to investigate that."

The marines looked nervous, but didn't question her orders. They picked up their pace and continued on their original course.

Alice watched them for a minute then quickly checked around her before heading towards the source of the shots.

She reached a rocky outcropping, carefully she manovered herself over towards what looked like an open clearing. She could hear voices trailing out towards her.

"Captain, come in." Her radio seemed to echo around the cavern.

She flinched and quickly fumbled with her vest. "Requesting radio silence, i think i've found the Colonel." She held her breath and tried to press herself flush against the rocks.

A few minutes went by and no one had come to investigate or made any indication they'd heard her. She carefully began moving again, finding a good place to climb up onto one of the bigger rocks trying to find a viewpoint into the clearing below.

Alice crept up over the edge of a rock and was finally able to see into the clearing. Teyla was unconscious on the ground and a rugged man was holding John at gunpoint.

Alice thought about radioing in for backup, but the way this clearing was formed her voice would most likely carry down and give away her position.

"Look, you wanna go through the Gate, go." John was holding his hands up, Alice peered through her scope to get a better look. "Give me my radio, I'll order my men not to stop you."

The rugged man kept his gun trained on John, "You can tell them in person. I'm taking you with me."

Alice was a fair shot, but there was no way she could guarantee she'd be able to hit him before he shot John.

"You know, there's a chance we could help you."

The man twitched his gun, "How?"

Alice ran her scope over to Teyla, who looked like she had regained consciousness.

"You get this tracking device out of me -- I'll get your friend back for you." The man looked like he was ready to put his gun away.

"OK, good. It's a deal."

Alice slid back down the rock and moved back away from the entrance of the clearing. She found a shadowed tree hidden away from the entrance, they'd have to pass her if they were heading back towards the Jumper.

She waited listening for footsteps coming her way. As soon as she heard the crunching of leaves mearing her, she jumped out grabbing John around his chest and clamping her other hand over his mouth and pulled him down onto the ground. "Stop! It's me!" She hissed into his ear.

John was tense, but as he looked in her face began to relax. Confident he wasn't going to shout out, she removed her hand from his face. She gave him a grin, "hey!"

"Riles! What the hell?" John sat up against the tree staring at her. "How did you find us?"

"I heard your P90 fire, who's the guy?" She cocked her head back towards the clearing.

"We need to move," John stood up and brushed the dirt and leaves off his uniform, "i'll explain on the way." He grabbed her hand and pulled her up.

* * *

Alice and John ran side by side back to the Jumper, Reed came out to greet them. Alice had cuaght him up on everything that happened since he'd been captured whilst they ran back. John had only given her a few details about who that man was and what he wanted. "Reed, did you find Major Lorne?" Reed just nodded looking at the two of them confused, he was probably wondering where they had come from.

"Where is he?" John pressed.

Reed looked back at the Jumper, "He's inside, sir."

They both rans inside to see Evan groggily getting to his feet. "Evan!" Alice rushed forward to support him as he stumbled slightly.

"What happened to you?" John grimaced.

Evan winced, "I got hit by a Wraith blaster looking for you. Now McKay's missing."

"Great!"

Evan pushed himself off Alice and stood up straight "What about Teyla?"

John moved past them both and began dialling the gate, "Long story. You can listen to it when I tell Doctor Weir."

John had left the jumper to meet Carson at the gate, he'd also requested additional weaponry. "Are you sure you're okay?" Alice narrowed her eyes as she examined Evan.

Evan swatted her hands away, "would you stop worrying, It was just a stunner." Alice pulled away, Evan gave her a small smile "at least the Wraith stunners don't sting like the Zats."

Alice smiled, if he could joke then he was fine. She heard a group approaching and walked out to greet Carson, "you ready doc?" She walked over and offered out her hand to take one of the cases he was carrying.

He looked slightly pale, "it's alright love, just lead the way." Alice looked at John waiting for his signal, he nodded reluctantly at her and she turned to lead the way back to the cave.

"You take up position on that ridge over there, and do not, i repeat do not move until i give you the signal. Okay?" John tilted his head and raised an eyebrow, giving her a hard stare.

Alice bobbed her head, biting back a snappy retort that she was perfectly capable of looking after herself, and quickly headed over to her designated position.

She was laying flat on her stomach, her gun held out in front of her using her binoculars to monitor the clearing down below. Carson had begun setting up his equipment, whilst Ronon was sitting down still with his gun pointed at Teyla.

Alice felt slightly useless, she'd been watching for over an hour now. Carson was still digging around in Ronon's back and night had crawled in on them, luckily the lights Carson had brought with him lit up the clearing as bright as day. She squinted as Carson pulled something out of his back, she stuck her tongue out in disgust as she saw the blood dripping from it.

Almost as soon as Carson dropped the device into the dish Teyla was holding out, Ronon collapsed onto his side. Alice looked up from her binoculars and turned to look where she knew John was positioned. She clicked her radio, "what now?"

"Stay here." he ordered, Alice grumbled to herself. She hated being kept on the sidelines, she raised her binoculars again and watched John approach the cave as Teyla disarmed Ronon.

A sound in the distance caught her attention, it sounded like gun fire. She shook her head trying to clear her senses and shut her eyes focusing on her hearing. This time the shots were loud and clear, they were closer than before and heading in their direction and definitely from an Earth gun. Several more shots rang out through the silence. Alice looked back down in the clearing to see John taking off towards the sounds.

"Screw it" Alice picked up and gun and slid down the side of the rock, landing heavily on her feet. She started running straightaway flicking on her torch as she moved. She pushed herself faster as a couple more shots ripped through the quiet. She slowed down as she heard grunting up ahead, it sounded like two men grappling.

She edged her way towards the noise through the trees, "don't move." She aimed her gun at them, they were standing a few paces apart with knives drawn "hey Ford."

Ford spat out a mouthful of blood, wiping his mouth with the back of his hand and grinned at her. "Looking good Aly."

Alice kept her gun trained on him, her eyes darted to Ronon keeping both of them in her vision as she stepped out into the clearing. "Let's all put down the knives and we can head back home."

Ford scoffed, "it's not home Aly, and I'm not coming back." He ran forward knocking her cleanly off her feet and onto her back. She raised her hand up to protect her face, but before he could do anything else, Ronon had grabbed his vest and thrown him across the clearing.

Alice sprang back to her feet, but Ford had already reached his discarded Wraith stunner and a blue bolt of energy encompassed her. She could feel herself falling to the ground and John's voice shouting out "Lieutenant! Don't."

Alice blinked slowly, "she's awake." A rough voice she didn't recognise came from above her.

"Put her down." That was definitely John.

The fog started lifting from her brain and she could start to make out the shapes around her, "ow." She said lamely. She saw Ronon taking a step back from her, she realised he'd been carrying her unconscious body.

"You okay Riles?" John stepped over a tree root and crouched down next to her.

"Fine. Rmbarrassed. But fine." She moved her head side to side looking around them. "I guess we didn't get him?"

She heard the distinctive sound of a Wraith dart in the distance, John's face was solemn. She didn't need to ask what had happened. "We should keep moving." John offered his hand to her and helped her stand up.

They made it back to the Jumper, Carson forced Alice to take a seat in the back and began to check her over. Apparently John had radioed ahead that she'd been hit. Frustrated, she blew a piece of hair out of her face as Carson slipped on a blood pressure monitor. "Major Lorne got hit to, why isn't he being checked out." she complained.

"He did, and the effects have already worn off." Carson sighed. Alice pouted silently, but allowed Carson to continue his work. "Your levels are way off, I want to get you under a scanner when we get back."

Alice groaned, "i'm fine doc, i've been hit by stunners tons already."

"Exactly my point love, you have no idea what the effects of so many blasts could be."

"It's not necessary Carson-" Alice argued.

"Riles, listen to the doc. Lorne's going to to get checked out too." John called out from the front of the jumper.

Alice bit her lip, the ride back to Atlantis was silent. Everyone felt the weight of failure and grief as they'd once again had to give up the search for Lt. Ford. Alice felt like punching the wall, she'd been so close to him. If she'd shot him maybe then they could have incapacitated him enough to bring him in.

Though this probably wouldn't have worked, according to Rodney and John they'd both shot him and it hadn't slowed him down at all. Ford, Why don't you just come home, Alice thought to herself.

Alice hesitated outside the door, the two marines guarding it gave her an odd look. "Okay, open it up." She said finally standing straight and trying to make herself seem bigger.

The guards unlocked the room and she stepped inside, Ronon was stood against the window looking out at the city. "Hi there!" Alice cringed as she heard her voice squeak slightly.

Ronon glanced at her for a second then returned to looking out. Alice stood uncomfortably in the entrance of the room, "look, i know you probably want to be alone right now. But i just wanted to say thanks for the save back on the planet." Alice fidgeted on her feet.

She waited for Ronon to respond, but he just kept looking out the window. "Okay, then." She huffed under her breath.

"You don't need to thank me" Ronon's gruff reply same just as she'd turned around.

Alice balanced on one foot as she turned back to face him. "Okay, no thanks then. But..." she smiled at him, "how about a drink?" she offered him a bottle of scotch.

Alice held a small card close to her chest, she checked around her quickly. The hall was deserted.

She pried open the door panel to reveal the crystals, working quickly she managed to bypass the doors security system and force it open.

She grinned to herself. Normally she wouldn't advocate breaking into someone else room, but in this case she was hoping John wouldn't mind. She strode into John's empty room, she knew she had at least 10 minutes before John would be heading back to his room as he was debriefing one of the marine teams. He normally kept them quite short, unless someone had been injured.

She held the white card out and placed it onto John's pillow. Taking one last look around the room she smiled and headed out to set things up.

Alice stared out at the dimly lit ocean. If you wanted peace and quiet then this was the best place to get it. Most people didn't come this far out from the main city, especially since the siege earlier this year collapsed a lot of the main halls and the power to these areas was still patchy. But it would be perfect for John and Alice to have some much needed privacy.

John should be here any minute, she checked her life signs detector. No movement. She tapped her fingers on the railing impatiently. He was late. She had a feeling it was on purpose too.

She cast another glance down at the detector, to her delight a small white dot was approaching her position. She forced her face back into a neutral expression, trying to act non-chalant and turned leaning on the railing to face the door.

John opened the door and stepped through, at first he looked straight at her but he was then distracted by what was around her. Alice held her hands out, lifting one shoulder up higher than the other. "Surprise!"

John had done something similar for her a while ago. She'd set out a few blankets on the floor and lit the area with a fist full of tac torches - since they weren't allowed candles. She'd also packed them some snacks, namely turkey sandwiches.

"Oh!" She exclaimed, running past him to hit the external light controls, dimming the lights down so the torch light created a more romantic atmosphere.

John still hadn't said anything, Alice was starting to feel nervous. "Well? Say something." She nudged his shoulder.

He was still looking around, but finally drew his eyes up to her. "Riles, what is all this?"

Alice bit down on her lip, "this is my way of saying sorry that I disobeyed your orders and almost got myself killed."

John smirked, "y'know i almost expect now that you're not going to follow my orders now."

Alice slipped her hand into his, "still, i shouldn't of been disrespectful to you infront of the others either." She let go and lowered herself down onto the blankets, crossing her legs. "And, since we've decided to get to know each other better, i thought this would be the perfect time to do that." She slapped the spot next to her.

John smiled to himself and sat down next to her, "what do you want to know?"

She stared at him, "everything!" There was a pause, "so you were married?" She smirked, she knew this wasn't something John usually liked to talk about.

John cleared his throat, grabbing a can of beer out of the bag. "Uh, yeah. Her name was Nancy, we were married for about two years."

Alice raised her eyebrows, urging him to continue "what happened?"

"You know that before I used to run high level missions for the Air Force." Alice nodded, "she couldn't stand never knowing where i was, what i was doing and that i wouldn't talk about it with her."

Alice looked down, she could understand how difficult that would be. "So, after two years, she decided that i needed to choose, her or the air force." He took a big gulp of his beer, keeping his eyes staring out at the stars.

"It may be wrong to say it, but i for one am glad you picked the air force." John gave her a sweet smile and kissed her forehead.

"Okay, you're turn." He finished his beer and grabbed two more, offerring the other to Alice. She took it without hesitation. "You've never been married." Alice screwed up her face, even though John had said it more as a statement than a question. "What have your previous relationships been like then?"

Alice took in a deep breath and held the can up to her lips, taking a small sip. "I joined the air force pretty much straight after high school. I dated a couple of other recruits during that time, nothing serious though. Truthfully, i've really only had two relationships that i'd consider mildly serious." She paused, she was watching John's expressions carefully. "You, obviously and Evan."

John didn't react, he gave her hand a little reassuring squeeze, "what happened between you two?"

Alice sighed, she didn't exactly want to go into the details. Especially considering Evan was serving under John's command and was still one of her closest friends. "Kind of what always happens, it got to serious... i just couldn't reciprocate his feelings."

John just nodded, Alice felt the tension in her chest ease slightly. She wanted to move onto a different topic now, "do you have any family back on Earth?"

He nodded, "my father and brother. But we had a huge falling out a few years ago and haven't spoken since. He didn't exactly approve of my career choice."

Alice smirked, "i know how that feels."

John looked at her curiously, "i thought you didn't have any family back home."

She shook her head, "I don't, not anymore at least. My parents died when i was little, too little to remember them really." She'd never told anyone this before, Evan knew but only because he'd seen her personnel folder. John probably had never read hers, but he didn't seem surprised to hear it. "I had an older brother though, he really looked out for me. He graduated three years ahead of me and joined the marines."

She paused, she didn't like talking about her brother much. "I saw the life he had, what the military had given him and i wanted it. Not to mention I wanted to go to college and they gave me the way to do it. He didn't exactly approve though. He always thought of me as his little defenseless sister."

"what happened to him?" He asked softly.

"He was killed in Afghanistan, his troop carrier hit an IED. I was only a few weeks into basic training." She took in a breath, it felt like a different lifetime now.

"I'm sorry Riles." John wrapped his arm around her, rubbing his thumb over her shoulder.

"It was a long time ago. I've got a new family here now." She smiled. "Now let's find out some happier things shall we?" She pulled the snacks out and laid them in front of them.

They stayed up almost all night, laughing, drinking and asking everything from favourite colour to sharing worst drunk stories. The sun had started to rise and Alice had started to clear everything up. She was meant to meet Rodney in the labs later that afternoon, so she headed back to her room to sleep off the alcohol.


	14. Chapter 14

**A/N Happy Sunday!**

 **Please enjoy the latest chapter :)**

* * *

Alice laid her cards flat out on the table, "read it and weep, ladies!" She smiled smugly.

The five other women around the table groaned and threw their cards down onto the table. Alice swept her 'winnings' over to her. Tonight's takings consisted of a bottle of champagne, two bars of chocolate, a bottle of perfume and some make up products - in other words things that you could only get if you rotated back to Earth or slipped one of the Daedalus crew members some money.

Laura Cadman was sat opposite her leaning back and narrowing her eyes at Alice, "alright, you win tonight but next week..." she dragged her finger up in the air and dramatically dropped it to the floor.

Everyone stared at her for a moment before busting out laughing. Alice enjoyed these nights, she'd never really been one to have female friends. But it felt nice to connect with similar people, who could also share her situation. Around her sat Laura, Katie Brown from the botany team, Dakota and Sarah both marines recently assigned to the expedition.

Alice took another sip of her drink whilst she piled her winnings into a canvas bag. "So who's got any new gossip?" Laura smirked.

Dakota scoffed, "what gossip, nothing scandalous happens here."

Alice had to hide her smirk, if only they knew. "Well, I heard someone in this room had got a date with a certain head of research." Alice held up her hand and not so subtly pointed to Katie.

Laura slammed her hands down on the table, "seriously?!"

Katie blushed, "well, he's quite sweet right?" She looked questioningly at Alice.

"Maybe to people he fancies, but he can be incredibly trying." Alice saw Katie's face drop slightly, "i'm sure it'll be great though." She added quickly.

Laura laughed, "that's amazing. He certainly wouldn't be my first choice though." She leaned back in her chair and flicked her hair back over her shoulder.

Alice gulped down the rest of her drink, "and who would that be?"

Laura smirked, "i mean there are quite a few good looking men on this expedition."

"Sheppard." Dakota smiled and nodded.

"What?" Laura burst out laughing.

Dakota folded her arms, "have you seen his arms?the man is fit! Probably be amazing in bed too."

Alice felt a slight flare of jealousy ignite inside her. She poured herself another glass to distract herself.

Laura still looked unconvinced, "i mean i'm not saying he isn't hot, but it's not like you could ever do anything with him. He's our CO."

Dakota shrugged, "doesn't mean a girl can't dream."

Katie sat forward eagerly, "i heard he's seeing someone."

Alice spluttered into her drink, the girls looked at her strangely. "Really?" Dakota was sitting forward now. "Who told you that?"

Alice wiped her chin, Laura was narrowing her eyes at her slightly. Katie placed her elbows on the table, "one of the other biologists saw him sneaking around the halls at night carrying a bottle of champagne and he swears he's also seen the Colonel with a hickey." Alice's throat tightened as she tried to swallow.

Dakota shook her head "He's always up late, i've seen him quite a lot too. And with the amount of trouble you guys get into offworld, i'm surprised you're not always covered in cuts and bruises." She leaned back in her chair "Nah, I don't buy it. And besides, the Colonel doesn't really strike me as the relationship type." She raised her fingers to make air quotes. She looked directly at Alice "You spend alot of time with him, what do you think?"

Alice cleared her throat thinking quickly, "Rodney thinks it's Elizabeth" she lied, although technically it was true. Rodney had questioned it once before.

"Or maybe one of the scientists, either way she couldn't be one of the military personnel." Dakota hmphed and gazed up, looking deep in thought.

Sarah smirked, "what about Major Lorne?"

Laura took a sip of her drink, "he's alright, though i've heard someone's already tried that." She shot Alice a pointed look.

Alice held her hands up, "it was a while ago now, back when we worked at the SGC. And it's not exactly a secret."

Dakota grinned, "how come I didn't know about this! Now that he's here you thinking of kickstarting it again?"

Alice rolled her eyes, "no way, Evan's like family to me now. But he is single Dakota." She winked at the marine.

Dakota cracked her knuckles, "well, that sounds like a challenge."

All the girls laughed, "right it's getting late. Laura remember our mission briefing is at 10am." Alice stood up stretching and gave Laura a pointed look.

Laura smiled and nodded, saying goodnight as Alice walked out of the room.

* * *

Alice squinted into the sunlight. In the distance, smoke was rising from several different locations. She was walking with two other military personnel. They were searching for any survivors of a recent culling.

Alice crouched down and picked up what looked like a piece of burnt cloth.

Her radio crackled, "Alright, I'm about ready to call this one. Doesn't look like there are any survivors." She could hear the disappointment in John's voice.

Alice tapped her talk button, "we've got no signs of life over here." She threw the piece of material back down on the ground and stood up wiping her hands on her pants.

"The cullings are getting more and more intense." Teyla sighed into the radio.

"Well, you said it yourself: too many Wraith woke up at the same time. Too many mouths to feed - or ... hands to feed." John replied. Alice gestured to her team and they turned and started to retrace their steps.

"Well, we're headin' back to the Gate - meet you there?" Evan joined in the chatter.

"We're on our way." Alice stepped over a rather charred piece of wood.

"Sounds like a plan. McKay, Beckett: you havin' any luck?" Alice listened to John's voice, she knew Laura had been assigned to Carson's group.

"Negative, Colonel, we haven't found anyone." Carson's voice was low and solemn.

"Make your way back to the Gate." John ordered.

"Will do. Beckett out." Alice had to watch where she was walking, they should only be a couple of klicks out from the gate.

Alice and her team walked in silence, the weight of the smoking villages running through their minds. Teyla was right, the attacks were getting so much worse. This was the third time this month they'd arrived to the smouldering remains of some civilisation.

Alice's radio clicked, Laura's voice came screaming through, "We have a Dart incoming."

Alice and her team started running, she could already see the top of the gate. "If it's seen us, it will blow Atlantis' cover. Anyone get a clear shot, you take it, understand?" Alice yelled a reply into her radio, the marines guarding the gate were loading up their rocket launcher.

She skidded to a halt and turned around raising her gun up to her chin. Behind her she heard the Stargate activate. She looked back at the marines, "we can't let it get through the gate!"

Alice could just start to hear the whir of the engine, as Teyla's team reported in its heading.

Alice had her gun raised and her finger poised over the trigger. She was tense as she anticipated the darts arrival. She wasn't expecting to hear Carson's panting voice call down the radio, "Wait - McKay and Cadman have been beamed aboard that Dart!"

Alice adjusted her grip on her gun, "sir?!" She yelled to John who had just emerged out of the woods, unsure what their next move should be.

He gave her a grim look and aimed up at the sky, "We can't risk the Dart making it back to the hive ship."

The Dart came into view, heading straight towards them. John opened fire, Alice hesitated a moment before taking a deep breath and firing on it too.

Their combined fire managed to damage the dart. The wing collapsed and it veered off its course. Alice continued firing until the dart disappeared in a plume of smoke. She took off running towards it before any of the others. Ignoring John calling her name.

She slid over the small ridge to see Carson cautiously approaching the dart's cockpit with his gun raised. John appeared next to her and quickly moved to get a better view of the cockpit. Alice flinched and immediately raised her gun as a hail of bullets fired at the cockpit.

Carson had ducked down, but was now glaring daggers at John. "What the hell d'you think you're doing?"

"It was reaching for the self-destruct." John yelled back.

Alice moved around the side of the Dart and peered into the damaged rear compartment. She whispered a silent prayer that they hadn't just lost Rodney and Laura.

"We need to get Zalenka here now" John stepped over to Alice, "Riles, report back to Weir and get Zalenka prepped."

Alice just nodded and headed back to the gate in a daze.

* * *

Alice was sat on the floor with her datapad in front of her. She was underneath the wreckage of the dart, Radek has asked for her help in identifying how the dart transfers its power.

She had her - Evan's- headphones plugged in and music pounding through them. All around her were other scientists each focusing on a different challenge to do with the dart and the constant chatter in various languages had proved to be too distracting.

She jumped as a hand clasped her shoulder, she ripped off her headphones as she saw John crouching down next to her. "You alright?" His eyebrows were frowning slightly and his eyes were darting across her face trying to read her expression.

Alice sighed, "not exactly." She turned her datapad towards John, "I honestly don't know what I'm doing here, I don't think there's any way that we can reproduce these energy patterns." She closed her eyes and rubbed her forehead.

John pursed his lips, "i'm sure you'll figure it out. I..." he frowned slightly, "I know both of them mean a lot to you."

Alice smiled softly at him, "thanks, now go please and let me work."

He nodded awkwardly and straightened up to walk away. Alice replaced her headphones and went back to frowning at her screen.

* * *

Alice watched as Radek reluctantly showed him the broken transformer he'd removed from the dart. Radek was incredibly tense, she knew she was expecting a volatile response as Rodney reached out to pick up one of the broken transformer bits tray.

As expected, Rodney's tone was laced with sarcasm. "Oh, nice work!"

Radek huffed, "We were running out of power. I knew hardly anything about the machine. Who would have thought this could be one of the side effects?"

Alice couldn't listen to another one of Rodney's condescending lectures, she honestly didn't know how his team put up with him. She slipped her headphones pack on and went back to her work, doing her best to ignore Rodney's whining pitch.

It worked for a couple of minutes, but Rodney was getting progressively louder and it got to the point where she might as well not have been wearing them. "but only because Doctor Fumbles McStupid over here" Alice ripped her headphones up and stormed over to Rodney, "was in way over his head!"

"Rodney!" Alice hissed at him, "how dare you, we" she gestured to the room around her, "are all here trying to fix this for you. And Laura. It's not our fault. You're the one who was stupid enough to get beamed up by the darting the first place."

"Riles, enough." John stepped forward and placed a hand on her shoulder.

Rodney's face was pale, but she could tell Radek was still seething. "Yes, yes, _I_ made a mistake trying to save _your_ life." He stepped up to Rodney confidently. "Now, d'you want to try to fix it, or do you want to continue to berate me some more?"

"I'm perfectly capable of doing both" Rodney swallowed back the rest of his remark as Alice narrowed her eyes threateningly at him. He cleared his throat, turning to look at Radek "Now - I assume you've tried to run one of our own generators on it?"

"It's not as simple as that ..." Radek began to explain the complications they'd been encountering, ones that Alice hoped to fix. Even after what he'd been through Alice expected Rodney to be more focused on the problem.

"YES! WHAT?!" Rodney yelled furiously.

The entire room went dead silent, as they all stared wide-eyed at Rodney. "Well, stop asking stupid questions!" he was staring off into space.

Carson took a minute step forward, "Rodney ..."

Rodney raised his finger, "I will get you out of here, OK? Now just be a good little girlie and keep quiet." He paused as if listening to a reply, "And do you have a degree in physics, hmm? Well, what about mechanical engineering, huh?"

Out of all the weird things Alice had seen this was definitely ranking in the top 10.

"Rodney?" Elizabeth said softly.

"YES?!" Rodney yelled through gritted teeth, but quickly realised his mistake and calmed himself "Sorry. I'm sorry. What, please?"

"Why don't we let Zelenka and Riley handle this?"

Rodney pulled down on the bottom of his jacket, "I'm fine."

John scoffed, "No, you're not."

Alice nodded in agreement. "You're really not."

"And I'd like you to talk to Doctor Heightmeyer." Elizabeth added.

"I think it'd be more useful if I was to ..." Rodney tried to argue.

"Rodney. I'm not asking you." Elizabeth's voice was firm.

Rodney looked around the hanger, like a school boy who had just been chastised by the teacher in front of the class. "Fine." and with that he walked out of the hanger.

They all watched him go, "keep working on it." Elizabeth gave them a reassuring look then followed Rodney out with Carson.

Alice blew out a breath and ran her hand through her hair, "well, that was intense."

Radek hmphed in agreement and walked back over to the dart muttering in Czech.

"You'll solve it." John said confidently, though his tone didn't quite reach his eyes.

Alice sighed, "I hope so..." She spun around and nudge into him, "so what're you doing now?"

John clasped his fingers behind his back, "I'm heading to the gym to put Ronon through a few more sparring runs."

Alice smiled, she knew that John had been beyond impressed by their new Satedan friend. "Maybe I'll come by and give him a run for his money." she winked and laughed her way back to her laptop.

* * *

Alice stood in the doorway of the gym, three enlisted men were lying thriving on the floor and Ronon was standing over them. John had his elbow on the shoulder of a mannequin nearby, watching. Alice rolled her eyes, of course John wouldn't be the one taking the beating.

"Alright. Let's try that again." he was grinning at the soldiers.

One of the men on the floor groaned and looked up in pain, "How 'bout you try that again ... sir?"

Alice smirked at his boldness, John was smiling too. "Maybe that's enough for today."

Alice stepped forward and dropped her bag onto the floor, "oh, but i just got here."

Ronon looked around at her, she still found it difficult to read his expressions but he didn't intimidate her as much as he used to. John's smile had disappeared, "maybe another time..."

"Why, I'm ready." Alice kicked off her shoes and stepped onto the mat. Ronon stepped backwards to make room for her, the soldiers rolled and dragged themselves out of the way. They didn't go far though, obviously wanting to see how this would play out.

"Riles, you're still recovering from that head injury. You should be taking it easy remember?" John was stood up straight now and his mouth pressed into a thin line.

"I'll be gentle." Ronon didn't speak very often, and it always surprised Alice how soft his voice was.

Ronon hadn't taken his eyes off her since she'd stepped onto the mat, Alice knew he was sizing her up and trying to figure out her weaknesses. She wasn't going to wait for him to attack. She ran forward, aiming a jab for his throat. He was able to pull back at the last second, so just her fingertips scraped the skin of his neck. Ronon was quick for his size, before Alice could recover he'd crouched down and moved to sweep her legs out from under her.

Thinking quick Alice jumped backwards, her landing wasn't perfect and she ended up off-balance. In the time it took her to correct it, Ronon was on her. She was barely able to block his blows, but she got lucky and managed to catch his wrist. Using his weight against him, she flung herself up catching her leg under his chin and rolled him down onto his back clenching his arms inbetween her legs.

"Hah!" she yelled, slackening her grip. She realised her mistake almost instantly, as soon as Ronon felt her relax he pulled her arm towards him grabbing her neck and flipped them round so her head slammed against the mat. She gasped for air as the move knocked the wind out of her.

"Get off her!" Alice felt Ronon's hand pull back immediately, as John ordered him off.

As Ronon let go, she raised herself up in a sitting position. "I'm fine," she could see his hand hovering over his holstered gun. Ronon had stood up and was looking inbetween the two of them. "Nice move."

Ronon smirked and held out his hand, "thanks." John was still stood rigid next to them, his eyes trained on Ronon's hand gripping hers.

She took a step closer to John, his eyes finally moved to meet hers. "I'm good. Really." she narrowed her eyes at him, trying to convey that he shouldn't react so much or he'd give them away. "Next time, you won't catch me dropping my guard." she pointed and smiled at the Satedan.

"Just never assume you've got me pinned down" he smirked back at her.

"Well, I better get back to saving Rodney and Laura." she picked up her bag and waved at the two of them as she left the gym. Once she knew for sure she was out of sight, she winced and grabbed the back of her head.

* * *

Alice was once again sat on the floor underneath the Wraith dart staring at a screen full of Wraith writing. She couldn't make heads or tails out of what it was saying. She'd been hoping to bypass their need to replace the transformer and see if she could find and repair the code that said it had to be channeled through there.

Rodney was back 'helping' again too, apparently the counselling session had helped Rodney and Laura come to some sort of agreement. Alice didn't know how Laura could stand it, not being in control of your body was one thing but to have to share your mind with Rodney was a whole other kind of horrible.

Rodney clapped his hands together, "Alright! Let's give this bad boy a try." He stepped over Alice's cords.

She raised her hands up in defeat."It's not going to work Rodney."

He ignored her and walked over to the other scientist by the power relay equipment, "Start her up, but slowly ease her into it."

Radek hurried forward with his datapad held out. "No, no, no, no. It's not ready. Some of these calculations are not right."

Alice stood up and moved away from the dart, Rodney hadn't even looked over at Radek. "Maybe you just don't understand them."

The equipment started to hum, Alice jumped back and shielded her face as an array of sparks shot out of the interface point. A few technicians ran in to quickly douse the fire.

Rodney was stood cowering next to her with his mouth agape, "What the hell happened?!"

The scientists slowly stood up from where they'd taken cover, "We started it up."

"I said slowly ease her into it!" Rodney hissed.

The scientist quickly double checked her readings, "I was at three percent."

Radek stepped forward, handing the datapad to Alice. She quickly looked down at the numbers "The power requirements are delicate. We should have run more simulations before we ..."

"Yes, yes! Twenty-twenty hindsight." Rodney complained sarcastically.

"You shouldn't be here." Radek held up his chin.

Rodney gaped at him, "I'm sorry?"

"He's right Rodney, you're screwing up simple calculations. You're making it dangerous for everyone here." Alice stood beside Radek to back him up.

Rodney's face seemed to take on a reddish hue, "I'm not going to take criticism from either of you, you're lucky you have one doctorate between you."

"We are telling you these calculations are wrong." Radek relaxed his stance slightly, "Having two consciousnesses inside of a single brain must be very taxing."

"Listen ..." Rodney held up his finger threateningly.

"You're making mistakes." She enunciated each work and turned the datapad so he could see, he snatched it off her and she watched as his expression changed.

Radek looked at him sternly, "Now leave it to us, before you do more harm than good."

Rodney, reluctantly realising that Radek was right, giving him the datapad back and walked away.

Alice sighed, "That went well."

Radek nodded reluctantly, "I hate having to speak to him like that."

"Are you sure?" Alice gave him a look and raised her eyebrows. He pursed his lips and went back to analysing the data.

She laughed softly to herself and dropped back down on to the floor dragging her laptop up onto her lap.

* * *

Alice heard her door slide open behind her, she was sat at her desk staring at the Wraith code on her laptop. Radek had kicked her out of the hanger about an hour ago to get some rest, but she'd found her mind was too active to just switch off. "I wasn't sure you'd still be up." Alice felt John's hand on her shoulder and his lips press to the side of her cheek.

She closed her eyes and enjoyed the feel of it, she brought her hand up to clasp his. "I just can't get these numbers out of my head." She finally tore her eyes away and looked up to see John with a distracted glazed look over his face. "Hey, you alright?"

He scrunched up his face, "I just ran into Rodney in the hall, I just can't imagine what they're both going through."

Alice stood up and locked her hands around John's neck, "like you said, we'll sort this out." She pecked him quickly, "how did Ronon do with your final few tests?"

John shrugged, "he's disciplined, deadly and hates the Wraith more than we do. I think we could use him."

Alice smiled, "good. He really is a great fighter! Though it might take some time before the other expedition members aren't afraid of him." she snickered.

John rolled his eyes, "the man's a giant, anyone with a sense of fear would be afraid." he stressed the word, giving Alice a pointed look.

"Good thing our sense of fear was trained out of us then" she quipped back quickly, smiling and pressing another kiss to his lips.

She could feel him smirking under her kiss, he dropped down hooking the backs of her thighs and pulling her and locking them around his hips. She giggled and allowed him to drop her down onto the bed and bit her lip as she watched him rip off his shirt and tug on his belt.

* * *

Alice blinked, she wasn't sure what had woken her but she felt John groan and shuffle next to her as well. She stared around the dark room confused, that's when the door chime sounded.

That's what must've woken her, another chime, she threw the blanket off her and grabbed her shirt and pants off the floor. Bleary eye she opened the door into the brightly lit corridor. Rodney was standing in the doorway with his shirt slightly unzipped. Alice rubbed her eyes, she couldn't quite put her finger on it but something seemed off in his stance.

"Alice!" He said overly cheefully.

"Rodney? It's the middle of the night...is everything okay?" Alice lent against the doorway.

"Yes" Rodney cleared his throat, "i just wanted to say sorry. What i said to you earlier was unacceptable."

Alice straightened up and did a double take at the person standing in front of her. In the time she'd been working with Rodney this was the first time she'd ever heard him apologise. "Um..." she scratched the back of her head, "thanks Rodney."

Rodney smiled at her, "that's all, goodnight Alice." He went to move away, then paused "nice boots by the way."

Alice watched him leave in a confused silence. She didn't quite know what to make of his last comment. That was until she turned around to head back to bed. There spread around on the floor were the rest of her clothes and John's with his black military boots sat in full view of the door.

Alice felt all the blood drain out of her face, there was no way he could know, wasn't there... She looked around the room, thankfully the bed was hidden behind a pillar so Rodney shouldn't have been able to see if anyone was there.

Her heart was beating fast and her mind was racing thinking of all the possible excuses she could give him as to why she had clothes strewn about her room and a pair of men's combat boots.

"Riles?" John's sleepy voice called out in the darkness to her.

She swallowed and forced the thoughts to the back of her mind, she wasn't going to say anything to John. At least, not until she figured out what Rodney thought.

She kicked off her pants and climbed back into bed next to John. His eyes were still close, but as soon as she slipped in he immediately wrapped his arms around her waist and dragged her into his chest. She giggled softly and nuzzled her head into his neck.

* * *

It was early in the afternoon, Alice was biting her bottom lip as Radek handed a technician a couple of little mice.

John and Elizabeth had come along to observe their latest test. Alice kept her arms crossed behind her back, tensing to stop her from reaching out grab John's hand.

"We've been running simulations all day. I think we may finally have something. We were able to get the generator to run on a buffer loop which tricks the Dart into taking only the power that it needs without overloading." Radek grabbed his datapad and entered the last few bits of code.

Rodney walked over to them, "Mmm. Great. Good thinking. Can we, just, see it?"

"Anxious?" Elizabeth smirked looking at Rodney.

"Yes." Rodney replied bluntly.

"OK. Firing."

Alice held her breath as the mice disappeared,

Radek checked the monitor, "Alright. Life signs holding steady. Now, rematerialisation initiated."

The beam swept out again. Alice looking in horror as the mice beamed back burnt, black and smoking.

"Now I'm no scientist," John gulped, "but those mice used to be a different colour."

Rodney sighed, "This is never gonna end! I'm gonna be stuck like this - forever!"

Everyone was silent as they stared at the mice. Rodney had sculked off quietly, Alice shook herself out of her stupor and looked at John and Elizabeth.

John was grimacing and Elizabeth looked downcast. She regained her composure quickly and told them to keep trying.

Radek pushed his glasses up his nose and went to talk to the other scientists, leaving John and Alice alone.

"I'm going to ask Elizabeth about Ronon." John crossed his arms over his chest keeping his eyes straight on.

Alice riased her eyebrows, "good luck with that."

John winced, "yeah" he clapped his hand on her shoulder and then headed off towards the control room.

* * *

Alice was sat with her feet curled under her on one of the infirmary beds with her laptop resting on her knees. Carson, Dr. Heightmeyer and Radek were next to her.

Alice tapped loudly on her keyboard. They were getting so close. Rodney and Laura were almost out of time though.

"What happened?" Rodney groaned, as he slowly woke up.

Carson stepped forward and double checked his vitals, "You had a seizure."

Fear flashed over Rodney's face, "Why?"

Carson hesitated, "From what we can tell, the constant fighting over the dominance of your brain is having a deleterious effect on its lower functions: heart rate, respiration, organ function ..."

Rodney's facial expression became more guarded, "That's not good."

Then the fear returned, "Of course it's not good!"

"I'm not sure how long you can go on like this." Carson said lowly.

Alice listened with a steely haze over her face trying to keep her emotions in check.

"I'm afraid if one of you doesn't let go, both of you will die." Carson looked at the others gathered around.

Reluctantly, Rodney raises his hand "I'll do it."

Carson nodded, then looked confused. "Which one of you said that?"

"Laura." Alice answered for them. Rodney turned towards her and smiled sweetly, she knew it was Laura looking at her though. "Could you give us a moment please?"

Carson and Dr. Heightmeyer moved aside whispering in hushed tones to each other.

"Laura?" Alice hestitated.

"It's me Captain." Rodney gave her one of Laura's signature confident smirks.

"Is there anyone I...?" Alice knew Laura had a family back home.

"My folks back home, if you wouldn't mind making sure they get my body I'd be eternally grateful." Rodney's face twitched flashing from a serene calm to one of utter terror.

"Of course," Alice tried to swallow. "I just wanted to say you've been a really great friend."

Rodney - Laura - reached out and grabbed her hand. "Thanks Alice," he dipped his head closer to her, "and your secret is safe with me."

Alice's head shot up confused, Rodney winked at her and she instantly knew why Rodney's apology had seemed so out of place. It had been Laura.

"What secret?" Rodney's quivering voice. Then once again turned to a smug, confident look, "none of your business McKay."

Alice laughed, "I'll give you guys a minute to say goodbye."

She gave Rodney's hand one last squeeze and then left to head back to the hanger. That had to be something she was missing.

She'd barely made it to the hanger when Radek's excited voice had called for her over the radio telling her to connect the gate's control crystal to the dart. She'd bolted for the control room and retrieved the crystal by the time Rodney and Radek arrived from the infirmary. "We're just about ready, though Rodney I could use a second look over these calculations."

Radek opened up his laptop and squinted at the screen, "readings and output looks good."

Rodney checked the crystal tray, and nodded in approval. "Alright, let's do this."

Radek figeted with his hands, "Just because it works in simulation doesn't mean ..."

Rodney clicked his fingers, "I would prefer not to suffer a fatal seizure while we wait for you to round up more mice for testing. So, shall we?" He moved to stand in front of the dematerialiser and made a few final tweaks. Alice could see him muttering to himself, or probably more accurately Laura.

Alice stood back, there wasn't anything else for her to do now. John, Elizabeth and Carson strode in all of them looked concerned

Alice could clearly see the lines forming on John's face, "Hold on, Rodney - I thought all the mice died?"

Rodney smiled, "Well, what are we - mice or men, hmm?"

"Are you sure about this?" Elizabeth questioned.

"Absolutely, yes." He replied confidently.

Elizabeth looked across at Radek and Alice, Radek raised his hands helplessly and Alice just shrugged. This was a bit out of her league. "OK."

"Alright" Radek typed into his keyboard. Then looked up to the others "It's ready. I suggest you take a step back."

The three of them stepped back away from the target area. Leaving Rodney standing alone in the beaming zone.

"Alright." He raised his finger to activate the controls, but Rodney suddenly put his hand on his hip and raises the index finger on his other hand.

"Wait!" Alice watched with her mouth open as Rodney turned and walked purposefully over to Carson, grabbing him by the lapels of his lab coat, pulling him close and kissed him passionately.

Elizabeth looked away, embarrassed, while John and Alice continued to just stare in disbelief. After a moment, Rodney broke the the kiss. "Just in case this doesn't work."

At that moment, Rodney's entire body language shifted. He let go of Carson's coat with a gasp of horror. "Oh!" He quickly stumbled back into the target area, unable to meet anyone's eyes. "Just, just hit it." He covered his eyes with his hand.

Alice was still dumbfounded and was trying not to laugh at the ridiculousness of the situation.

Radek hit the button and the beam came out of the dematerialiser. It washed over Rodney and when it dissipates, Rodney had disappeared.

Radek turned to his computer, "OK - it's reading as two life signs. Power levels are steady ..."

John impatiently threw his hand up, "Get 'em out of there!"

Radek hit the button again and the beam shot out again and when it faded, Rodney was standing there with his head still in his hand. Next to him is Laura Cadman, Alice beamed at Radek. They stood there for a second, then both collapsed to the floor. Alice rushed forward with the others to check on them.

Alice had her fingers on Laura's pulse point, relaxing sightly when she felt the soft thumping of her heart. "Let's get them to the Infirmary." Carson ordered.

Alice grabbed Laura's shoulders and helped place her onto the gurney the medics who'd been waiting outside rolled in. "I'm going to go with her." She tols John who just nodded, his face still creased and jaw clamped shut.

She'd been sat inbetween Rodney and Laura's beds for the past 20 minutes waiting for them to wake up. Rodney was snoring softly, but Laura started to shuffle next to her.

"Carson!" Alice called standing up to watch Laura come around.

"Hey" she said horsely.

Alice grinned, "hey, lieutenant. Enjoy your beauty sleep?"

Laura smirked and started flexing out her fingers, "that feels so good."

Alice looked up as Carson joined her and she saw John and Elizabeth enter behind him. "Welcome back Laura," Elizabeth's warm voice rang out.

They all turned as Rodney snorted and slowly started blinking.

Alice saw a mischievous glint in Laura's eyes, "Feeling better?"

Rodney turned his head to the left, towards an empty bed. "Oh no!" The horror in his voice made Alice snort.

"Over here!" Laura said in a sing-song voice.

Rodney turned his head to the right to see Laura in the bed next to his, with Carson standing at her side. She waved at Rodney.

He sighed in relief, "Oh, um ... a little less crowded. You?"

Laura smiled, "Same. It's nice to have my own body back."

Alice smiled at her friend, watching her stretching out. And she didn't miss the little glance between Laura and Carson as he checked her readings. Apparently Rodney's kiss didn't kill the spark at all.

Rodney tapped Alice's back and gestured to Radek, "Nice work you two."

Radek rolled his eyes, "Well, it was your idea."

Rodney looked too smug for his own good, "Well, of course it was, but you ... you were ... there."

"Don't make me put you back in there Rodney." Alice threatened playfully.

She heard John chuckle behind her, "Lieutenant, way to survive what I think may be my worst nightmare."

Laura mock saulted, "Thank you, sir!"

"Yes, thank you!" Rodney said indignantly.

John just smiled at him sarcastically. Alice whispered a goodbye to Laura, "don't think this means i'll take it easy on you." She winked and nodded to Rodney and left the room for some much needed rest.

* * *

It had been almost a week before Laura had been discharged from the infirmary, apparently Carson had wanted to keep her and Rodney close to analyse the effects of being in the Wraith dematerialised for so long.

Alice was now leading her through the halls down into the quieter part of the city. "Alice, where are we going?"

"Well, you said before how nothing ever happens around here. So…" Alice grabbed her wrist and flung her around the corner. The loud sounds of a party exploded around them. Scientists, medics, technicians and other military personnel were all gathered around. "I thought it was the perfect time to throw the first ever proper party." Alice watched as Laura's face beamed. "Oh and I made sure to invite someone special for you." She grabbed Laura's shoulders and twisted her body around so she could see Carson standing by the window speaking to one of the technicians.

"This is great Alice. Sheppard and Weir signed off on this?"

Alice shrugged. "Don't worry I'll handle them. Now go have fun, Dakota and Sarah are around here somewhere too." Alice peered over the crowd trying to spot their other friends.

Laura shook her head and laughed softly, but headed off in the direction they'd seen Carson. Alice headed for the make-shift bar they'd set up, she thought she saw Ronon's tall silhouette moving through the crowd but there were too many people to be sure. She quickly grabbed a drink and found herself chatting with a bunch of Katie's biologist colleagues.

As the night wore on the room was starting to get hot, sticky and a lot busier. "Captain!" Markson pushed his way through the crowd to where Alice was dancing.

"We're off duty Markson, call me Alice or Riley." His face was flushed and he looked incredibly guilty.

"Riley, Colonel Sheppard and Major Lorne are at the door."

Alice almost dropped her glass. "Uh oh" her eyes widened, "hold this." She shoved the glass into his hand and shoved her way over to the entrance where she could see John and Evan looking out at the crowd. "Colonel. Evan." She said overy politely. "Why don't we talk outside." She pushed them back out through the door and into the corridor.

"Of course you'd be at the centre of this," John rubbed his temples.

"Morale was low. And Laura and Rodney deserve to blow off a little steam." Alice shrugged, "I dont see why it's a bad idea." She pointed back towards the room, "everyone in there is off duty."

Evan shook his head, but Alice could see he was smiling. "well apart from Ronon's guards." She flashed one of the guards who was next to the door a winning smile and twinkled her fingers at him.

"What!" John looked like he was about to turn purple, "don't you realise how dangerous he is."

Alice scoffed, "ease up John, you're the one that said to help him fit in."

John glanced uneasily at Evan, "Captain, you shouldn't be addressing your senior office like that." His voice was stern and low.

Alice waved her hand dismissively, "hey we're off duty. Ease up, we're not hurting anymore." She winked at him, John paled and the two men awkwardly exchanged looks. "Now, i'm missing a banging party, care to join?" She offered her hand to the two of them.

John crossed his arms "you're impossible."

Evan just shrugged, "well i'm neither on duty or your commanding officer, so why not." He slipped his arm around Alice's waist and leaned into kiss her cheek.

John sighed knowing he wasn't going to win this one. "Just don't destroy anything."

Evan twisted around as Alice waltzed back into the party. "Yes sir."


	15. Chapter 15

**A/N sorry for the long gap between this chapter and the last one, I will hopefully have the next chapter up asap.**

 **Happy reading!**

Alice had been sidelined for the past few weeks, she was getting closer and closer to finishing her final doctoral project. Rodney had insisted that she give it all her focus, and when she'd refused, he'd gone to John and told him to make it an official order. He'd agreed, so she'd been removed from active duty and spent her days shut up in a lab under Radek or Elizabeth's supervision.

Alice had been furious, but she'd held her tongue because she knew they were just trying to do the best for her. It didn't stop her from sulking about it though.

However, she was livid when she'd heard about their most recent mission. Not only had they been taken hostage, but they'd managed to destroy a Jumper and almost get themselves killed. Alice had not so politely told John, in private of course, that she would be skipping the next mission over her -or more acurately his- dead body. It hadn't takem much convincing for him to put her back on active duty.

Alice was now walking into the mess hall, her team had a mission scheduled in for today to what looked like a deserted planet and no force of nature or otherwise was going to stop her from going along.

She grabbed herself a tray and started plonking food onto it without really looking at what she was grabbing. She didn't really have much of an appetite. Even though it had been a couple of weeks, the prospect of being back out in the field had her feeling a mixture of anxiety and excitement. However, she made sure to grab two servings of jello from the shelf.

She looked around the hall, Teyla, Rodney and Ronon were sitting with a couple of the marines and Evan was sitting off by himself near the railing. She was still annoyed with Rodney for dobbing her into John. So she taking her tray she walked over and joined Evan, "hey." She set her tray down across from his and kicked the chair out so she could sit down.

Evan looked at her tray and raised his eyebrows, "how you eat like that... you better be careful, it's gonna catch up to you one day Aly-cat."

Alice stuck her tongue out at him, she just realised she'd accidently managed to take a Ronon size portion of food. "My figure is none of your concern."

He chuckled and continued eating his lunch. Alice followed suit, shoving a spoonful of mashed potatoes into her mouth. She watched as Evan looked up and his expression changed to one of confusion.

She craned her neck around to see what he was looking at, her team, Laura and Dakota on the other table. Catching her looking both Dakota and Laura burst out laughing. "What's going on there?" Evan said suspiciously.

Alice clicked her tongue frowning. "I have no idea." She stared at them a moment longer, feeling like she was just being self-conscious, until Ronon turned to look at her and Evan as well. She could see his mouth moving and Dakota broke out into another laugh.

Alice narrowed her eyes, she was about to stand up and confront them when she saw John walking across the hall tossing an apple. He was headed for the group's table. Hopefully he'd figure it out and she could ask him about it later. "That was weird." Evan shrugged and resumed eating.

Alice swivelled back to face him, but not before she saw John's face pale as Rodney said something to him as he sat down that caused Laura to smirk as well. "Something's definitely going on there." She scratched her chin, trying to resist the urge to turn around again.

"Just let it go, I'm sure it's nothing." Evan was always so nonchalant about everything. It annoyed her sometimes.

Sighing she shook her shoulders and stabbed her fork into her food, trying to follow Evan's example. She ate her food slowly from that point, her mind distracted by the group behind her. Every so often she would hear another burst of laughter and snickering. She was wracking her brain trying to think of what it could be. She'd checked her hair, made sure her shirt or pants weren't inside out.

"Aly, stop worrying." Evan said for the hundredth time. He was starting to clear up his tray, "i've got a mission to prep for, we still on for movie ?" He looked at her questioningly. "It's your choice remember?"

"Of course, I'll see you tonight." Alice smiled as he moved off. She opened the lid on her jello cup, as she watched Evan leave she subtly tilted her head to look back at the other group. Only Teyla, John and Ronon were left, the latter still had a mountain of food piled onto his tray. Picking up her jello cups she stood up and wandered over to their table. "Hey guys. Ronon you do realise they will have food available later right?" She snickered and Ronon glared at her.

She sat down next to him, and put another spoonful of jello into her mouth sucking on the spoon as she pulled it back out of her mouth. "So, what was all the staring and laughing about?"

Teyla sighed and looked slightly guilty, Rodney was also avoiding her stare. Teyla cleared her throat. "Apparently Lt. Cadman saw a pair of men's boots in your room a few nights ago, Rodney and Lt. Dakota were trying to guess whose they were."

Alice dropped the spoon, "they what?!"

"Top contender is Major Lorne," John smirked, Teyla shot him a chastising look. "Apparently" he added biting into his apple.

"Evan?" Alice looked around at them still slightly stunned, she would kill Laura "really who else?"

"Lloyd" Ronon grunted, "though i had another idea." He gave John a pointed look then ducked his head back down to continue eating.

"And that was..." Alice's voice was low, she couldn't believe they'd been gossiping about her. And from the sounds of it John hadn't been helping the matter.

"Me." John said bluntly, smirking at her. He almost sounded cocky.

Alice raised her eyebrows at him, she really wanted nothing more than to wipe that smug smirk off his face. She bit her lip to stop herself, and looked back at Ronon. "Ignoring the obvious military regulations" she let that linger for a moment, hoping to give John a reminder of why their relationship was secret. "What makes you think i'd be with someone who can't leave his room without getting his hair just right?" John held his hand up to his heart in mock hurt.

Ronon just raised his eyebrows quickly looking back between John and Alice, she could tell he wasn't buying it. Alice sighed, "I'm actually going to kill her and Dakota too." She had to throw them off her and John's scent. She stood up abruptly and pointed to John and Ronon, "you two better be careful or I'll add you to the list as well." Ronon scoffed and John just mouthed 'bring it.' "I'll meet you in the armoury."

She jogged through the halls, searching for the familiar broad shoulders and brown hair. "Evan!" She skidding past a couple of scientists and grabbed her friend's shoulders.

"Hey Aly-cat, what's up?" He was decked out in his full tac gear.

"I need to talk to you a sec." she cocked her head to an empty hallway just off from the main one. She took in a deep breath, "so apparently someone saw I had a guy in my room the other night, and people think it's you. Although a couple of people think it's John." She scowled thinking about John's smig face. "They can't find out about John and I, if they did we'd both loose our positions and be booted out of the exp-"

"Woah, woah. Slow down Alice." Evan grabbed her shoulders and forced her to take in a breath. "Is that why they were staring at us at lunch?" He raised his eyebrows.

Alice just nodded, squeezing her lips together. She could tell Evan was thinking it over in his head, and she didn't want to break his concentration.

"Okay, tell you what." Evan started.

Alice listened closely and smiled as Evan told her his plan. It was brilliant and it would definitely throw everyone of John and hers scent.

"That sounds great." Alice beamed at Evan.

They both turned as they heard footsteps approaching them, to their luck it was Dakota. If anyone could spread a rumour around Atlantis, it was the loud mouth marine. Turning back to face each other, Alice gave the smallest nod. Evan brought his hands up to cup her face and brought his lips down to hers.

"I knew it!" Dakota's voice rang out in the corridor. Evan and Alice broke away, pretending they hadn't known she was there.

Alice jumped back and stared wide eyed at Dakota as she took off running back up the hall, presumably to go tell Laura. "Dakota!!" She shouted after her, trying to make it seem like they'd been caught.

Alice smirked back at Evan and gave him a high five. Evan readjusted his vest and straightened up, "just make sure Sheppard knows about this, the last thing i need is him trying to kill me."

Alice rolled her eyes, "he wouldn't."

Evan shot her a disbelieving look, and headed towards the gateroom.

Alice watched him go, absent-mindedly touching her fingers to her lips. It had been a long time since her and Evan had kissed. She shook her head, what ever feelings she had for him they were gone.

"Riles, you alright?" John stopped walking as he spotted Alice staring blankly off into the distance.

"Yep, coming." She ran forward, catching up to him.

Alice was sat in the co-pilot's seat of the jumper. Rodney was sat behind her whinging to Ronon, "I'm just saying as a team veteran to the new guy: heavy lunch before mission departure -- bad idea. I mean, even with the inertial dampeners, this whole flying thing's best done on an empty stomach."

Ronon didn't seem phased by Rodney in the slightest. "Yeah, well, I've got a pretty strong stomach."

"Hey, I can eat frozen dinners without thawing them. It's not as if it even affects me."

Alice and John shot each other a look, John rolled his eyes. Not even 10 minutes into the mission and Rodney was already annoying, "McKay. Are you reading anything?"

Rodney turned around to a console behind his seat. "Nothing. Life signs from the planet are negative."

Teyla stepped forward, up to the cockpit window to get a better look at the planet, "Then it is a shame. From what we read in the Atlantis database, the Dorandans were a wonderful race of people."

Rodney swivelled back around, giving Teyla a dubious look, "Well, the database is over ten thousand years old. You can bet things have changed around here."

Ronon stood up as he sees something ahead of the Jumper. "Sheppard."

Alice followed his gaze and saw that they were flying towards a debris field above the planet. Alice narrowed her eyes trying to find and distinguishing shapes or patterns. "They're ships." Alice whispered.

Everyone started out the windshield in awe. "OK. That's not something you see every day." John murmured in agreement.

"There was a great battle here." John brought the Jumper in closer to the debris, Teyla pointed to one of the larger pieces, "That is a hive ship."

"That was a hive ship." Ronon corrected.

John was staring at it in with a hint of excitement, "Something put a lot of holes in it alright. We should check it out."

Rodney held up his and hands, "Whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa." His voice took on that squeaky tone when he was frightened, "What if whatever put the holes in it wants to put holes in us?"

John smiled, "Well, you just said, a lot's changed in ten thousand years."

Of course John couldn't resist. Though Alice had to admit to herself she was quite eager to find out what had happened. He set the Jumper down on the planet. As the Jumper broke through the clouds, Alice's eyes widened on the ruins of the ancient city.

"That would explain the lack of life signs." Rodney said softly, before turning back to his console.

Ronon sighed, "This is what usually happens when you fight back."

"These folks took out a fleet of Wraith ships." John sounded impressed, "I'd say they did a pretty good job of fighting back."

Rodney held up a finger, "Hold on. I'm picking up faint energy readings coming from ..." he turned back to them and leaned across pointing out to a building in the distance. "... there. That would explain how they were able to put up such a good fight."

Alice craned her neck back to get a look at Rodney's readings, trying to figure out what he meant.

"How?" John questioned

"Because ..." He paused dramatically, "they were Ancients."

Alice stared back out the Jumper's window as Rodney directed then towards the one undamaged building in the city. From the looks of it someone had stuck a giant weapon on the roof. "Cool." She muttered.

John landed the Jumper on top of the building. They managed to find an old metal ladder leading down into what looked like a laboratory. Alice shone her torch back and forth across the room. To her surprise it looked largely undamaged.

John whistled in appreciation, Alice smirked and shook her head at his childishness.

Rodney immediately went up to a console and tried to power it up, "Definitely Ancient design. Their latest stuff, too." He sounded like a kid at Christmas. Alice walked around the edge of the room, testing the doors, most seemed to be sealed shut though.

"Their latest being almost ten thousand years old, right?" Alice smirked.

John shone his torch across at her and she could see a look of amusement playing on his face, "Looks a lot like the labs we found on Atlantis."

Ronon looked around but had already seemed to loose interest, "So this is one of their outposts."

"Yet the Ancestors made no mention of their presence here in the database. Why?" Alice couldn't see her, but she imagined Teyla casting doubtful looks at Rodney.

Alice moved further down an open corridor, her team's voices turning into muffled sounds.

There were a few bodies laying on the floor, they looked like they could've been here a long time. "Riles?" John's voice echoed down the corridor.

"Down here." She called back, crouching down to inspect the closest body. "I've found a few bodies."

John crouched down next to her, "yeah, we found some back in the main chamber." He looked around them warily, "let's stick close, just until the powers back and we can find out what happened here."

Alice rolled her eyes at John's cautious nature, "what? Afraid of ghosts?." She grabbed his arm, causing him to jump slightly. He narrowed his eyes at her and stood back up as she laughed to herself.

He began to move back towards the rest of the team, "wait, John. I need to tell you something."

He paused and turned back to face her, resting his arms on his P90. "What's up?"

"Are you worried about what everyone was talking about this morning?" She bit her lip nervously.

John quickly looked over his shoulder, checking how far away the rest of the team were. "Of course, but people gossip. There's not much we can do, besides they all think it's Lorne." She wasn't sure but she thought there was a hint of jealousy in his voice.

"Exactly!" She whispered with a coy smile, "so i think we can use that to our advantage." She quickly told him the plan she'd worked out with Evan.

John raised an eyebrow, "and he's on board with this?"

"Of course, he doesn't want either of us to be dishonourably discharged. And he knows it's only a matter of time before i resign anyway."

John looked hesitant, "I'll think about it."

"But-" she tried to say that Dakota had already seen them kiss, but bit her tongue when she saw the look he gave her.

"I got it!" Rodney hollered.

John held her gaze for a moment longer, then walked back to where Rodney was.

————

Alice stuffed some equipment unceremoniously into a bag. They'd just finished reporting into Elizabeth and she'd green lit them to go back and see if they could activate the weapon.

Alice felt tiny jitters of excitement course through her, it wasn't everyday you got to play with a giant space gun. "So, is it really as impressive as Rodney made out?" One of the scientists asked her.

Rodney had picked out a research team to accompany them back to the planet, and since there wasn't going to be any combat, Teyla and Ronon were now sitting this one out. Not that they seemed very disappointed about it.

"I wouldn't get your hopes up, we don't even know if we can even get it operational." Alice was trying to convince herself as much as the other scientist. She grabbed a few final things and started zipping up her bag. She wanted to say something else, but she'd forgotten the scientists' name.

"Ah where are you going?" Rodney walked in and over to Alice.

"Um...the planet?" She replied sarcastically.

He shook his head, "nah ah, you're staying put. You've got exams to prep for." He reached over and placed his hand on her bag.

"You can't be serious?!" Alice pulled the bag away from him. "Sheppard cleared me for active missions."

Rodney reached for the bag again, "missions. Yes. This is now a research project, which means it's under my command." He raised his eyebrows at her.

Alice tugged the bag again, "i'm going McKay."

They stared at each other, Alice knew if this was a test of strength she'd win. But, if it was a test of stubbornness then Rodney would definitely win. "Hey, hey. What's going on here?" Elizabeth and John entered the room and looked at the two curiously.

"Captain Riley here, thinks she's joining us." Rodney's voice had an annoying tone to it, that made her think she'd missed something.

John cleared his throat awkwardly, Alice let go of the bag, "you've got to be kidding me?"

"Sorry Riles." John at least had the decency to look sorry.

"We all just want to make sure you're ready for your exams." Elizabeth reasoned with her.

She emptied her pockets of the extra equipment and shoved it harshly into John's hands. "Fine, but i get dibs on the next space weapon."

She said goodbye to Elizabeth and headed for her quarters. "Riles! Wait up." John jogged up behind her. She looked over her shoulder, not slowing down. "Sorry about that. I didn't realise how much you'd want to go."

She just shrugged, John put his hand on her shoulder. "You okay with me?"

She knew if she looked at his face she'd melt, but she couldn't help it. She sighed. "Sure, we're good." She said honestly.

A wide grin stretched over John's face, "we'll talk about that other thing when i'm back. I promise." He started walking backwards away from her.

She just smiled and waved, watching him jog towards the armoury. She hated the power that man had over her, one smile and she turned to jelly.

————-

Alice watched from the control room as the research team departed. "When you've got your doctorate" Elizabeth came up to stand beside her. "You can have which ever project you want."

Alice smiled, "if, i get it." She sighed.

"You will, we all have faith in you." Elizabeth put her hand on her shoulder.

"Thanks." Alice blinked at her commander, surprised by the warmth in the statement.

She stayed on the balcony watching the team depart until John gave her a mock salute and jumped through the gate.

———-

She stared at her laptop. Alice had always been a more practical person, channeling her knowledge into problems was her strength. Looking at equations on a screen and writing up a doctoral research paper, less so.

Radek and Rodney had been incredibly helpful, and even Colonel Carter had sent through some examples of her own work to inspire her. Probably the most difficult bit was not choosing something to do with the gate or the Ancients. But she'd finally decided on writing about the possibility and physics behind -hypothetical- space travel. Her entire paper would have to be cleared by Colonel Carter to make sure she'd not revealed anything too sensitive, but Alice wasn't too worried about that.

"Captain, may i join you?" Alice was shaken out of her thoughts by Colonel Cauldwell's voice.

"Of course sir." She grabbed her scattered papers and brought them in towards her.

"You didn't join the mission to the Ancients lab?" Cauldwell pulled out the seat and placed his tray gently onto the table.

Alice brushed a stray piece of hair behind her ear, "no sir. Colonel Sheppard and Dr. Weir thought my skills were needed elsewhere." She didn't exactly want to tell the Colonel her plans for ditching the military. In all honesty, he intimidated the hell out of her. Before he could question what she was working on, she tried to divert the conversation, "what's the latest with the SGC?"

Cauldwell rubbed his temples, "it's not great, the Ori managed to secure a beachhead in the milkyway."

Alice took in a sharp breath, she hadn't realised they were that hostile. In fact, she actually didn't know much about the Ori. Only what she'd heard in whisperings from the Daedalus crew or the new arrivals from the SGC. "Damn..."

Cauldwell just nodded and began eating his food. It was silent for a couple of minutes, Alice couldn't think of anything to say so she kept her head down pretending to be engrossed in her papers. "Colonel Cauldwell" Lloyd walked up to their table and saluted.

It felt strange to Alice, hardy anyone here saluted anyone anymore. It was only fresh recruits or the Daedalus crew who still stuck strictly to the rules, Alice had joked with her fellow officers it was all down to the Sheppard effect. Something Colonel Cauldwell probably didn't approve of.

Lloyd dipped his head in respect to Alice as she glanced up to see what he wanted. "Dr Weir has asked for you to join the mission debreif." He kept his eyes locked forward and his body ridged. Alice had to stop herself from giggling.

"Great, thank you Lieutenant." Cauldwell wiped his mouth and started piling his things back onto his tray. "Enjoy your lunch Captain." Alice thanked him and watched as Lloyd led him out to in the direction of the conference room.

Around lunch the mess hall had become too loud for Alice to concentrate so she's moved to one of the labs closer to her quarters.

Since Rodney had subquested his lab to use as a research hub for the new weapon, she'd been relegated to one of the smaller labs.

"How's it going?" John strode in throwing an apple up in his hands.

Alice huffed, "not as much fun as a space gun. Haven't you eaten enough today?"

John laughed at her face, "come on now, you'll get your shot to play with the big guns soon enough." He winked at her and pulled something out of his jacket. "But how about this as a peace offering." He held out the blue jello cup to her, taking a seat on the stool opposite her.

She narrowed her eyes at him, but a small smirk broke her cool facade and she snatched the jello out of his hand. "I'll take it."

John gave her his signature lopsided grin, she was amazed sometimes how he still had the ability to make her melt. "What are you smiling about?" John took a bite into his apple.

"Nothing." She replied coyly, opening up her jello.

He turned his head away from her, she could tell he was pretending to look around the room. As if he'd really be interested in the equations on the board. "Sooooo" Alice sat up straight, here he goes. "About this Lorne thing." Alice waited, he still was looking any where but her. "You have to admit it's a bit weird. No man wants to have his girlfriend prance around with another man."

Her breath hitched slightly, it was the first time John had ever called her his girlfriend. She could be such a teenager sometimes. She sighed, "of course it is, but what options do we really have at this point." She stood up and slowly made her way over to him. His eyes watched her everymove, she took hold of his hand and guided it down to her waist as she stepped in between his legs. She leaned in to whisper in his ear "Besides, you know I'm all yours, right?"

She heard John swallow, lightly she nipped his earlobe then pulled away from him before he had a chamce to react. A dark throaty noise came out of his mouth, "you're gonna pay for that."

Alice smirked and winked at him, no matter what effect he could have on her. She had just as much - or maybe more - of an effect on him. One that made sure he couldn't leave the room until it went down.

———-

Alice ran through the halls, pushing people out of the way as she went. She'd just heard the news, the test hadn't gone well, someone had died. What was making her throat constrict was that she had no idea who it was.

She tapped her foot impatiently as she waited for the transporter doors to open up to the control room. She prepared herself to start running again as soon as the doors opened, but just as she stepped out of the doors Carson was there.

"Carson!" Her voice came out as a strangled cry, "I just heard, who was killed?" She held her breath as Carson looked down onto the floor.

"I'm afriad Dr Collins was killed." He said somberly.

Alice didn't know Dr. Collins well, he'd been a recent arrival to Atlantis. Though it was always horrible to lose a member of the expedition, she was silently relieved to hear it wasn't John or Rodney. "Where are they?"

Carson looked slightly distracted, she had to repeat her question before he looked up "they're still in the conference room." She thanked him and moved aside so he could enter the transporter.

She didn't have to walk far when a very pissed off Rodney stormed past her heading for the labs. She tried to call out to him but he just ignored her, Radek who was following closely behind him gave her a sympathetic look and picked up his pace to catch Rodney. "What's going on?"

"Ah Captain" Alice twisted her neck around to see Colonel Cauldwell approaching her. "Just who i was looking for. Walk with me."

She saw a stoney faced John walk around the corner and look curiously between her and Cauldwell. "Yes, sir." She turned and followed him down towards the security office.

"What do you know about the weapon Dr. McKay discovered?"

She narrowed her eyes, "not much sir. Just the initial briefing notes Dr McKay shared." She wasn't sure she liked the direction of this.

"I've heard you've been working closely with Dr McKay and are quite capable with this sort of thing." Cauldwell stated it as fact, he wasn't looking for confirmation. He stopped suddlenly, Alice ended up a couple of steps ahead of him. "I want you to review the test data, the air force want an assesmemt done by one of their own. Can you do that?"

Alice wasn't sure what to say, this would be going directly against John and Elizabeth's wishes, but then again they weren't orders. No matter what Cauldwell's intentions Alice had to admit she couldn't help but want to get her hands on the test data. "Yes sir."

Cauldwell nodded and dismissed her. She felt an uneasy feeling settle in her stomach, like she'd just made a deal with the devil.

————

Alice didn't waste time, she headed straight for Rodney's lab. Transferring a copy of the test data to her own server had been ridiculously easy, probably because why would Rodney ever suspect she'd try to take it. He'd been too distracted running through his equations to really even notice her in the room.

She'd spent the next couple of hours reading, cross-referencing and researching the data from the test. A message popped up on her datapad, it was John, he was checking if she was still working. It was a subtle way of asking if she'd be coming over tonight. She sent back a quick reply saying she needed to get her head down and she'd catch up with him tomorrow. She knew he'd be disappointed, barely a night went by now where they weren't together.

She'd spent the whole night going through the data. John had come in and brought her coffee, apparently he didn't sleep too well without her, though he wouldn't admit it. She'd had to quickly switch her laptop screen to her doctorate and hope that John hadn't noticed.

The results were worse than she'd expected. Certainly there were parts she simply couldn't comprehend, but no matter how she tried to apply Rodney's equations, her simulations ended in the same result. "Good morning Captain."

Alice jumped at Cauldwell's voice, she hadn't even heard him enter the room. She cleared her throat, "sir."

"What's the update? Will it work?" He crossed his hands over his chest.

Alice shook her head and rubbed her eyes, "sorry Colonel. No matter what i've tried i can't get it to work, and i don't think with our understanding we'd ever be able to."

Cauldwell clenched his jaw, his disappointment clear on his face. "Well apparently Dr. McKay has a viable solution. They're heading back to the planet now."

Panic flashed across Alice's face, "no, you can't let them."

"Afraid it's not up to me." Despite his words Alice knew he was pleased, he wanted this weapon badly. She doubted it would phase him if they lost John and Rodney attempting to get it operational.

"Excuse me sir." She stood quickly and raced out the door, he could reprimand her all he wanted for not following proper military regulations, but here she was under John's command not Cauldwell's.

"Sheppard!" She managed to catch him as he was heading up to the jumper bay, he was already fully geared up.

"Riles, what's up?"

"The weapon is never going to work, i don't care what Rodney says, it's just not possible." She strained her voice hoping she could convince him.

John eyed her suspiciously "and how would you know that?"

Alice swallowed, "Cauldwell asked me to review the test data."

"That bast-"

"Look, it doesn't matter why. It won't work!" She pleaded with him.

John chewed on the inside of his cheek, his face not giving away his thoughts. "Sorry Riles, McKay really believes he can do this. I think it's worth a shot." He took another few steps towards the jumper bay, "besides he's usually right."

She stepped forward, "being right about one thing, doesn't make him right about everything."

"We'll keep you updated." John turned and left her standing there.

"John!" She demanded, but John just kept walking.

She stormed back down to the labs where Radek was working. "Do you think he can do this?" She slammed her datapad down on the table.

Radek flinched, and looked at her with mixed emotions. "I don't believe it has a high chance of success. I'm still concerned about the power fluctuations. Here look at this." He turned his screen towards her.

——

Alice hurried behind Radek, he'd apparently seen something alarming in the data. Alice was still lightyears behind Radek and Rodney, so she wasn't exactly sure what he'd seen.

"Doctor Weir, I need to speak to you right away." Radek panted.

"What is it?" Elizabeth looked just as concerned as Alice felt. She hated not being in the know and Radek had been running too fast for her to ask him along the way.

"I finished going over the accident data. I think I know why the Ancients abandoned this technology."

Alice understood, it was a lot worse than she'd first thought. Elizabeth started dialling the gate immediately.

Chuck nodded to her, she stood over his console "Colonel Sheppard, this is Atlantis."

"Go ahead."

"Is Doctor McKay with you?" Elizabeth glanced at Radek and Alice.

"Of course I am" Rodney's sarcastic reply came through loudly over the comms system, "but we're a little busy getting ready to run a test here."

Elizabeth braced herself, "Actually, I would like you to delay the test firing."

"Why?" John asked suspiciously.

"We have reason to believe that the weapon's power source, it may not be controllable at any power level." Alice nodded absent-mindedly, sharing a worried look with Radek.

"Radek?!" Rodney yelled accusingly.

Radek stepped forward so his voice would be picked up "Rodney?"

"OK, we have been over this. I am doing this manually, at half power. It's a cakewalk."

Radek shook his head, "I don't think it matters how much cake you walk on. I've been doing calculations of my own and I believe that the very act of trying to contain vacuum energy from our own space-time creates an environment where the laws of physics cease to apply."

"What are you on about?!"

"As power output increases, new and exotic particles are continuously created and destroyed inside the containment chamber, interacting with each other and with the field itself. Eventually particles are created that cannot be prevented in this space-time, and they breach the containment field as hard radiation." Radek explained.

"As long as I'm monitoring the energy output manually, I can stop that before it happens."

Alice sighed frustrated, it was times like these where his arrogance astounded her. "Rodney, listen to him. Even you can't predict something that is inherently unpredictable."

"I know what I'm doing." he remarked stubbornly.

"Rodney, I am trying to tell you as a friend, I have serious doubts." Radek tried to reason with him.

"Well, you're wrong. I'm sorry, but there it is. And to bring this up now when I am just about to do this smacks of nothing but professional jealousy, from both of you."

Alice scoffed and glanced wide-eyed at Radek, "Fine! Kill yourself, just like the Ancients did!" Radek spat down the speaker.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa, what do you mean by that?" John sounded nervous now.

Radek took in a deep breath and took of his glasses so he could rub his eyes, it must've been a calming action for him."I believe if the overload is allowed to continue, the weapon acts as a sort of release valve to prevent catastrophic containment failure. The Ancients barely managed to shut it down, and they lost their lives in the process."

Elizabeth jumped in "What we're suggesting is that the Wraith didn't kill everyone on that planet -- it was the weapon itself."

"That would explain why this place is the only thing left standing." John said, mostly to himself.

"Yes, congratulations -- you've solved the mystery of how the Ancients screwed up ten thousand years ago." Rodney didn't sound like he'd changed his mind at all. "It doesn't mean that I will do the same. Look, I don't know how else to say this, but none of you are capable of understanding this on the same level that I do. And Zelenka, that includes you."

Radek threw his arms up in frustration.

Elizabeth pursed her lips, "Rodney, I cannot afford to lose either one of you. Now tell me: can you do this?"

Alice paced back and forth, chewing on her fingernails. She didn't understand why Elizabeth didn't just order them back, they'd already lost one person to this thing.

"Yes." Rodney said firmly.

"Are you sure?" they heard John question.

"Yes."

Alice shook her head, Elizabeth had said nothing more.

"I'll call you back after the test -- how does that sound?" John's said after a moment of silence.

"We're just going to let them do this?!" Alice raised her voice, she knew that John and Rodney would be able to hear them.

Elizabeth paused, Alice could tell she was thinking it through. "Yes." she said finally, before turning back to the speak "You'd better."

Alice bit down on her lip, she'd learned to keep hold of her mouth in situations like this. She couldn't believe Elizabeth was going through with this. Rodney's price was going to get them all killed if they weren't careful.

They all waited in a tense silence. Alice kept pacing the area in front of the control panels, chewing her fingers. Radek was murmuring to himself in Czech and Elizabeth was leading against the control panel resting her head on her arms.

Anxiety was bubbling inside Alice, her stomach felt like it was filled with butterflies, it made her want to be sick. Finally the gate began to dial, Alice, Radek and Elizabeth all jumped and hurried back to the comms station. "Atlantis, this is Sheppard. We're coming in hot!"

Elizabeth nodded to Chuck who lowered the shield, "you're clear to come through Colonel." Alice could hear the tension in her voice. They all knew it had gone wrong, Alice clenched her fists. She could feel her nails digging into the skin of her palms, but it just helped her to stay in control of her emotions.

The Jumper rematerialised through the gate at some speed, it came to an abrupt halt. "Disengage the gate!" John yelled through his comms. Alice didn't wait for Elizabeth's approval, she reached over Chuck and slammed her fist down on the main control crystal immediately shutting down the gate.

They all ran up the stairs closest to them to meet John and Rodney in the hanger. "What happened?" Elizabeth demanded.

Rodney looked embarrassed, John looked between him and Elizabeth, "we got it wrong. If the Daedalus hadn't been there…well, let's just say it was a close call."

Rodney wouldn't meet their eyes, instead he shuffled his feet awkwardly. "Rodney, my office. Now." Elizabeth whirled around and headed back down the stairs. Keeping his eyes on the floor he followed her meekly. Alice stayed put and forced Rodney to push past her shoulder.

Radek sighed, "we're all glad your okay. Both of you." He took his glasses off and walked away.

Alice awkwardly looked around the room, "I'm sorry Riles, he asked me to trust him."

"like Radek said, we're all glad you're okay." Clasping her hands behind her she spun around and followed Radek. She didn't turn to see the downcast look on John's face, she knew he was already feeling bad. But all of this could have been avoided if he'd just listened to her.

As she walked down the stairs she could hear Elizabeth yelling at Rodney, despite the fact the door was closed. "Teyla! Ronon!" The two warriors who had jay returned handed their bags over to the waiting security teams.

"Alice!" Teyla greeted her pleasantly. "How have things been here?"

Alice took in a deep breath, glancing back up to where Elizabeth was still yelling at Rodney. She swung her arms back behind her, following them down the hall. "How was your trip?"

Teyla and Ronon exchanged a quick look, Alice raised her eyebrows at them. "It was…uneventful. Is everything okay?" Teyla replied after a moment.

Alice narrowed her eyes, "uh huh…" she just shrugged slightly. She knew Teyla and Ronon were hiding something, she assumed it might be something either awkward or romantic. "yeah fine, things are probably going to be a bit awkward with John and Rodney for a while." She explained them what had happened, Teyla's eyes narrowed and she sighed in obvious disappointment. Ronon didn't look like he was paying attention.

When she finished explaining, Teyla just shook her head. Ronon looked between them as they stopped in front of the transporter, "Well, I'm hungry. Food?" Alice couldn't help but laugh, Teyla rolled her eyes but followed both of them towards the mess hall.


	16. Chapter 16

**A/N And here is the next chapter already, i hope this makes up for the big delay between the last couple of chapters.**

 **Happy reading!**

It had been a couple of weeks since the space gun incident. Apart from missions, John had been avoiding Rodney like the plague. He'd even stopped coming by to check on Alice's progress in the labs too, just in case he ran into him. Alice didn't mind, it was one less distraction to worry about, though she did miss the coffee he used to bring her. Now she had to remind herself to take a break once in a while.

Rodney had been oddly meek and almost humble. Almost. He was still helping her with her doctorate, but he'd withdrawn into himself a bit more. Alice didn't have the slightest idea of what to say to him, and she doubted anything she said would help anyway. It was John's trust he'd broken and his problems lie with him.

Alice sat up in bed, her datapad resting on her lap. It was , she'd woken up after a particularly horrific wraith filled nightmare, so decided to get some more work done. She only had two weeks left until she would ship back home to finish her tests and resign her post. As much as she tried not to think about it, everyday it grew closer the more it terrified her.

The military had given her a lot and it was the only adult way of life she'd known. Going civilian was terrifying, there were no regulations telling her how to dress, how to act and no code to fall back on in times of need. Though she knew her military training would never leave her, and that she could still abide by the mentality and discipline she'd grown accustomed to. On the other hand though, she couldn't wait for these two weeks to be up. Only two more weeks and John and her could stop hiding in the shadows.

Although she thought her teammates might have begun to suspect their secret, they respected their privacy enough not to say anything. How they'd react had played out in Alice's mind a few times. Mostly she thought they'd be happy for them.

There was a quiet knock on the door, then John strode in. "Y'know you can't just override my door controls all the time." She gave him a cross look.

John crossed the room quickly, grinning down at her. "We've got a mission to prep for." Alice's face softened, she placed the datapad on the side and scooched over to let John slide in next to her. He wrapped his arm over her shoulders, drawing her head down to rest on his chest.

"We don't have to leave for another two hours." Alice said, closing her eyes and listening to the steady rhythm of his heart.

"Oh my mistake, guess i'll just pass the time here then." Alice smiled as he started rubbing his thumb over her back.

She cracked her eyes open looking up at John's handsome face. She could tell he'd not shaved in a couple days, there was the faintest shadow of stubble covering his chin. His eyes were shut and his face was relaxed. He looked peaceful, it wasn't an expression she got to see on him often.

He had new lines under his eyes that hadn't been there when she'd met him, though she was pretty sure all the original members of the expedition had them now. Including her.

Although the thought of a real relationship with John had terrified her at the beginning, the last few weeks had given her a taste of everything she'd be gaining. John was a gentle man, earnest, caring and devoted. But more importantly, he was her safe harbour. She didn't have to pretend around him or hide anything.

As much as she tried to resist it, she knew he was slowly bringing her barriers down and worming his way into her heart. Evan would laugh if he could hear her thoughts now. He'd once joked that he didn't think she was capable of romantic love, and he was more likely to see the Goa'uld surrender than ever see her admit she had fallen in love.

He dropped his chin to look down at her, "you okay?" He asked in a sleepy voice.

She kissed him, he let out a muffled moan as she pulled away. "I'm great, go back to sleep."

—————

The beeping of her alarm caused her to stir, both of them must've dropped off to sleep. Alice yawned and shuffled back so she could stretch out. John still had his eyes closed. "Morning sunshine." She said as she reached over and turned on the lights.

John scrunched up his face and opened one eye, he groaned slightly before kissing Alice on the forehead. "Thanks Riles."

She giggled. "what for? I didn't do anything."

He swung his legs off the bed and slipped his feet back into his shoes. "I haven't been sleeping well recently, the only times i can are when i'm with you." He ruffled his hair slightly.

Alice didn't know what to say, John wasn't the best at expressing his feelings. Let alone telling her when he felt vulnerable. "What ever

I can do." She replied simply. Standing up to get ready.

He walked over and gave her a quick kiss. "I'll see you in the gateroom." He rested his forehead against hers. "Two weeks" he held up two fingers smiling and then turned to leave.

Alice grinned, biting down on her index finger as she watched him disappear. She felt like a teenager again with her first crush.

——————

The team were walking single file down a village lane, all of them on high alert. John was on point, followed by Teyla, McKay, Alice, and Ronon taking up the rear.

"Another great vacation getaway in the Pegasus Galaxy." John said jovially.

Teyla, as always, tried to keep them on mission. "Where is everyone?"

Ronon took a couple of bigger steps so that he was now alongside Alice. "There's smoke from the chimneys. They're inside."

"Hmph. Can't say I blame them. Nothing I hate more than a damp cold." Rodney muttered. No-one reacted, it'd been this way for the last week. Teyla, Ronon and Alice could all feel the awkward tension around Rodney as he'd tried over and over again to get things back to the way they were. And missions were the only time that John could stand being near Rodney.

They arrived at what look like a small village square. John gestured at them, and they quickly spread out into a semi-circle. John walked towards one of the bigger buildings with a large iron bound door. "Let's check this out." Alice, Ronon and Teyla took up defensive positions around the door.

John opened the door into what looked like an old fashion English pub. Alice had spent some time in England during her training days doing shared ops, she quite enjoyed it there. This building wouldn't look out of place somewhere deep in the countryside.

John led them in, the villagers were all sat down for dinner. Their conversations grounded to a hault as they cast hard looks at Alice and her team. John smiled awkwardly. "Howdy, folks." Alice kept her grip tight on her gun.

More silence met them, everyone was staring at them now. A younger man stepped around the bar and hesitantly approached them. "Who are you?"

John lowered his gun, letting his hands rest on its hilt. "Sheppard." He swung his arm around towards the rest of them. Ronon was just ducking down to enter the room. "This is Riley, Teyla, Ronon, McKay ..."

Ronon gave a brief, abortive wave to the crowd. No one responded. Tough crowd, Alice thought to herself. While they weren't exactly hostile, it was pretty clear they'd be just as happy if the strangers turned around and left the way they came.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Alice was just about to suggest they call it a day when the young man tossed the towel in his hands over his shoulder. "You from Ratira?"

John looked over his shoulder at Ronon and Teyla. "No." Alice's gaze swept the room, trying to quietly assess if their were any obvious threats. She knew Ronon and Teyla would be doing the same. Rodney, on the other hand, was cowering between the three off them trying to make himself as small as possible.

"Over the mountains, then?"

From her position she could only see a small portion of John's face, but just from his tone she could he was crinkling his face slightly. "A little further."

The man looked at the others around him, seemingly satisfied with John's answers. "Huh. Then you've come a long way. You'll be in need of food and drink."

Rodney suddenly wasn't so frightened, he quickly moved forward at the offer of food. Shoving between Ronon and Alice.

The man gestured to an empty table. "Sit."

Still wary, Alice followed her teammates over to the table. The villagers followed their movements carefully. Alice got the feeling they were not as welcoming as the owner seemed to be. The man quickly wiped the table, Alice moved towards the closest chair. He quickly moved and pulled it out for her, giving her a shy grin as his cheeks blushed slightly. She returned his smile and took her seat, out of the corner of her eye she saw John smirking.

Rodney took the seat next to her, he looked around quickly at the other patrons. "I take it you don't get many strangers around here?"

"No." The man replied, "Especially those who travel near dark."

John cocked an eyebrow. "Why's that?"

The man looked up with genuine surprise evident on his face. "You really don't know?"

"Callup!" Alice turned to see who had just called out to, who she assumed was the young man. An older, bearded man was standing near the bar, his arms crossed in more obvious hostility. "What's your business here?" His gruff voice rang out in the pub.

John put on one of his more charming innocent smiles, "No business really, we're just travelers."

It didn't seem to have an effect. "Then you'd best keep traveling."

Teyla looked surprised at this lapse in hospitality; Rodney, who had also plastered a charming smile on his face, dropped back to his usual cynical look. "Yeah."

The man kept a hostile grimace on his face. Alice cast a look around at her team, she could see from their faces they were all thinking the same thing. Time to leave. John placed his hands on the table and pushed himself up. "All right, then." Alice and the rest followed his lead.

"Wait!" Callup called, then turned to the older man. "Goran, you can't send them out there."

Goran looked over his shoulder at Ronon, who was still sat at the table never actually stood up from the table, Alice had never been on the receiving end of one of his murderous looks, but she'd seen men wet themselves over less terrifying things.

"They look like they can take care of themselves." The man called Goran snapped. "It may not even ."

Callup pleaded with the older man. "It's been three months. How much longer do you think it'll wait?"

Rodney stepped around Alice and gave the two arguing men a little wave. "Hi! What are you talkin' about?"

Callup turned his attention back at them, Goran heaved himself off his stool and approached them as well. "The Daimos."

Alice raised an eyebrow down at Ronon, "the what?" He just shrugged. Not taking his eyes of Goran.

"Never heard of it." John replied puzzled.

Goran looked at each of them suspiciously, but decided to answer. "It lives in the forest. It'll be feeding soon."

"And it is ... some kind of an animal, or…?" Rodney tried to make shapes or teeth or something with his hands.

Goran pulled at his jacket, obviously what ever it was it scared the angry old man. "It's a creature, that has the appearance of a man, but it can suck the very life from your bones. It leaves only a dead, withered husk behind."

Alice took in a sharp breath, "Sounds familiar." She said before John could open his mouth.

"Please sit." Callup gestured to the table again. Goran had a surprised look on his face, the hostility was slowly beginning to fade.

Alice looked to John, waiting for his orders. His head swept from left to right, looking each of the team in the eyes. He looked at Alice last, then nodded.

Callup seemed pleased as they once again sat down at the table, and went off to fetch some drinks from behind the bar. Alice awkwardly rested her P90 under the table, keeping a wary eye on Goran and the other villagers. Though they all seemed curious now rather than hostile.

Goran placed his hand on the back of a empty chair and dragged it over to their table. Callup brought over a tray full of drinks filled with red liquid.

Alice picked up the glass curiously, sniffing the rim of the glass. John and her exchanged a look then Alice put the glass back down. "Look, uh ... we know you're not used to dealing with strangers, but we may be able to help you with this little problem you're having. We're used to dealing with this kind of thing."

Alice watched in slight disgust as Ronon gulped down the red liquid without a second thought. Droplets running down the side of his mouth.

"We call them the Wraith." Teyla brought Alice back to the conversation.

Goran looked even more intrigued now. "These are the creatures from the old stories, from the time of the cullings."

"So you have heard of them?" Rodney pushed his glass towards Ronon.

Goran explained to them how a wraith ship had crashed and the Daimos was likely a survivor from this incident. Goran finished talk and stared blankly down at the table.

Alice shuffled around awkwardly, one Wraith wasn't too bad. She knew John would be thinking the same, but she waiting for him to speak.

"That's it?" Ronon said unimpressed. "One Wraith in the forest?" He reached for his gun on the table and flicked the arming mechanism.

"Yes." Goran nodded.

Ronon looked around then stood up. "I'll be done by morning!"

John stood up quickly to block his path. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!" Alice was on her feet too, just as a huge crash of lightning sounded outside. John looked between her and Ronon. "We'll all go together" Ronon looked like he might disobey. "... in the daylight!" John stressed, giving Ronon a pointed look.

Ronon was tense and stared down at John but eventually restrained himself. Callup paused, he was bringing another pitcher of the red liquid over to them. "You're really going to help us?"

John sat back down in his seat. Alice and Ronon were still on their feet. "Well, like the man said" John waved to Ronon. "it's just one Wraith. It'd be downright unneigborly if we didn't." He put on another charming smile, and picked up his glass. Alice slowly lowered herself back down onto her seat. Ronon hesitated another moment longer before following her.

Callup had a cheery grin on his face. "In that case? Drinks are on me."

Rodney raised his forefinger up in the air. "Uh, well ... let's not forget the food!"

Alice rolled her eyes, trust Rodney to always think about food. Goran was still sat with them, he cast a glance around them. "We'll find you somewhere to stay."

Callup returned with yet another pitcher, "you may stay here, will you be needing separate rooms?" He looked deliberately between John and Teyla who were sat close together.

John snorted into his drink, spluttering he wiped his mouth on his sleeve. "Yes!"

Teyla, Ronon and Alice all smiled trying not to laugh. Callup just nodded and went back to the bar. John looked to Alice, "Riles, you and Ronon head back to the gate and update Elizabeth. Let her know we'll be here for a bit." Alice nodded and stood up. "And no Wraith hunting." He said purposefully looking at Ronon.

Ronon just shrugged and followed Alice out of the tavern.

It hadn't taken them long to report back to Elizabeth and get back to the tavern. Mostly because there was a huge storm raging and Ronon and her were dripping wet by the time they made it back. John, Rodney and Teyla had all still been at the table chowing down on some nice hot food.

Rodney had laughed at their appearance when they walked back in, Alice had not so accidently whacked her gun into his side as she sat down.

Callup eventually led them out behind the bar and up into the second floor, showing them each where they could sleep. It was a small place so Teyla and Alice were sharing a room as were the boys.

—————

The next day, Alice had managed to dry out her clothes by hanging them near the fire. Callup had made them breakfast and they were now gearing up outside the tavern.

Alice was stood with Teyla double checking their gear and ammo. She raised her hand to cover her mouth as a yawn made her entire body shake. "Did you not sleep well?" Teyla looked at her concerned.

"Oh you know just being in an unfamiliar place. I'm fine." Alice smiled, but Teyla didn't seem convinced. Alice dropped her head and tried to busy herself with her equipment. In truth, Alice had another night filled with nightmares of the wraith. She knew it wasn't anything to be ashamed off, her team knew the horrors of the wraith better than anyone. But it was still something she didn't want to discuss.

Rodney was sitting on a rock being annoyed by a small child. Goran approached them from behind. "As far as we know, no one was taken last night, but it will strike ... and soon."

Ronon was activating and cycling through his guns shot type. "We'll kill it before that happens."

John gave them the signal and they headed towards the forest. "You must be great at parties"

Alice laughed under her breath as she followed Rodney into the forest.

It felt like they'd been tripping over roots and quietly stalking this Wraith for days now. Alice used the back of her hand to wipe the sweat that was forming on her brow. She looked over to the rest of the team, Ronon had taken the lead. John and Teyla were trailing slightly behind him, she could tell John was starting to get bored and impatient. Teyla didn't look much better. Typically, Rodney had started complaining about 10 minutes into the mission.

John and Teyla were having a hushed conversation off to one side. Alice was only a few steps behind Ronon, she'd decided to try to learn as much as she could by observering his tracking skills. You never know when it could come in handy, she'd told herself, but mostly it stopped her from being mindlessly bored.

Ronon raised his hand, causing the whole team to freeze. He whipped his hand down and pulled out his gun. Alice tensed and raised her gun in the direction he was looking, she couldn't see anything.

"It's in there." He hissed back to them. Alice squinted trying to make out any shapes, suddenly a

flash of white darted out between the trees. Ronon took off after it.

"Ronon! Dammit." John swore, running after him. Alice didn't hesitate she was hot on John's heels following Ronon.

Alice was doing her best to keep up with Ronon, but she wasn't doing a great job. Both her and John were lagging behind the Satedan. Though she couldn't even hear Rodney and Teyla, the latter probably had slowed her pace to ensure Rodney wasn't left alone. She'd trained with a lot heavier gear during her academy days, but never in this kind of terrain. They were ducking past trees, leaping over fallen logs and every step her p90 crashed into her chest, causing her to grunt with effort.

Finally, up ahead she saw that Ronon had come to a hault. He was aiming his gun into the mouth of a cave. Alice slowed her pace, her feet slipping sightly on the damp leaves on the ground. John was only a few paces in front of her, he was breathing heavily too.

Ronon shot them a slightly amused look over his shoulder, Alice scowled back. Like anyone would be able to keep up with the former runner. They waited outside the cave for Teyla and Rodney to catch up.

Rodney was wheezing and his face was bright red. Alice made a mental note to remind Rodney to start doing some cardio training.

Ronon stepped forward. "It's in there."

John looked at Rodney, slightly repulsed. "It was the Wraith?"

"Yeah." Ronon said plainly.

"Ronon is correct. I can definitely sense it now." Teyla looked warily around them.

"Let's get it." Alice slipped her flashlight onto the top of her P90 and stepped towards the entrance.

John cleared his throat. Alice knew he didn't want her to take point, but she pretended not to understand. However, she did allow Ronon to go in front of her though, that should placate him somewhat. Though she was still probably going to hear something about it later.

Quietly they made their way through the twisting tunnels. Alice panned her light around the walls, there was no sign of the organic material that Wraith usually surrounded themselves with. Alice felt a slight shiver go up her spine, something felt wrong. Teyla was only a few steps behind her, her light swung forward and reflected off the white face of a young female wraith.

"A female!" Teyla yelled, Ronon took off like a shot. John swore under his breath and they quickly followed after him.

She could hear the heavy footsteps of the Wraith just up ahead. Alice watched in surprise as it threw open a door and disappeared. Alice slowed down and raised her gun, Ronon kept his pace bursting through a door into a lab. As Alice stepped through the scene wasn't exactly what she'd expected.

"Ellia?" Alice hesitated, shooting a confused look at Teyla. The wraith they'd been following was cowering behind an old man.

"Get out of the way!" John yelled fiercely.

Alice readjusted her grip, something felt wrong though. They'd never seen a wraith act like this. Though she could tell John wasn't in a listening mood.

The old man held up his hands protectively in front of the wraith. "Please! Don't shoot! She's not what you think!" He wrapped his arm around her, "She's my daughter."

Wide-eyed she shot John a anxious look. All around her she could see her team mates face reflected her horror and disbelief. John was the only one who kept his expression guarded.

"She means you no harm!" The man sensed their hesitation.

Ronon stepped forward threateningly. "She's a Wraith!"

The man nodded, putting himself strategically between Ellia and Ronon. "Maybe so, but she's different! I swear to you!"

"Let me guess? Wraith with a heart of gold?" John said sarcastically.

"She doesn't feed. She's never taken a human life."

Alice opened her mouth to ask him how, but Teyla beat her to it. "How is that possible?"

"Please! Lower your weapons, and I'll explain it to you." He pleaded.

Alice tensed, she watched John out of her peripheral vision. Her grip was still tight on her gun, she had a feeling she knew what John was going to do. Alice watched the man and his daughter carefully. She noticed the girl was dressed in similar clothes to the people of the village. Her hand, which was gripping onto the man's shoulder was also missing the classic blue tinge. "Sheppard, her hand." She gestured her head towards the girl.

John lowered his gun, Rodney quickly followed suit. Both Teyla and Alice were more hesitant. Although Alice put her gun down she kept her grip tight and ready to aim again at a moments notice.

"It's all right." The man sighed in relief.

"Father!" The wraith shrieked shakily.

"I won't let them hurt you." He pulled her into a comforting hug, Alice cringed back slightly. She'd only been that close to a Wraith a couple of times, and both times they'd just been about to feed on her. He turned back to face them. "I raised her as my own."

Alice stepped back slightly, wanting to keep a larger distance between herself and the wraith. She could see Teyla looked incredibly disturbed and sceptical. "You live here? Together?"

"This was part of a mine, before the last culling. It's not much to look at, I know, but we don't have much choice. The people of the village would not understand." The wraith hid her face behind him.

"Gee. I wonder why?" John quipped.

Rodney's attention drifted away from the wraith and the man, and he walked closer to a table filled with scientific equipment. Alice moved to shadow him, as much as she wanted to protect Rodney she was also curious about what the vials and liquids were.

She listened as the man explained how Ellia arrived on the planet and why she doesn't need to feed. Both Alice and Rodney excahnged a couple of horrified, disgusted looks during the conversation. But most of Alice's attention was focused on the equipment. She picked up a couple of vials to examine them closer.

Zaddick stepped towards Alice, she flinched back taking the vial with her. She saw John move closer towards her. Zaddick held out his hand for the vial, Alice handed it back to him. "I came up with this."

Rodney looked stunned as he squinted at the vial filled with a dark red fluid. Alice was still sceptical, it just seemed too good to be true, but then again it wouldn't be the first time the people of the Pegasus Galaxy showed how resourceful they could be. She cast a glance at John who still looked unconvinced.

————

Alice was sat on a rock out front of the cave, John had taken Ronon to report back into Atlantis about Ellia and Zaddik. Teyla and Rodney were both still inside the cave, but being that close to Ellia made Alice's skin crawl. All she could think about was how a few months ago she was stumbling through the dark corridors of Atlantis waiting for a wraith to jump out and take her life at any moment. She shook her head, i guess you aren't over that incident as much as you thought.

She bit down on her lower lip and checked her watch. John should be on his way back any time now, most likely with Carson in tow. As much as she doubted the ability of this miracle drug, if it was real it could be a game changer for the entire galaxy.

Alice swore as the crackle of the radio caused her to jump. Get ahold of your self Riley. "Riles. Teyla. this is Sheppard."

She said nothing, Teyla would be in a better position to give an update. "Go ahead." Teyla said after a moment's silence.

"Just got back with Beckett. Ronon's gonna take him up to the cave, I'm gonna check in with the villagers."

"What are you going to tell them?" Alice jumped in now, standing up from her seat.

"I'm still workin' on that."

"I'll meet you there." She picked up her pack that she'd discarded on the ground and started making her way back to the village.

She met Carson and Ronon half way and directed them back up to the cave. Mostly for Carson's benefit, she knew Ronon would already have most of the land memorised.

Stepping out of the forest, the roofs of the village were now visible. Alice looked around to see if any of the villagers were nearby before moving across into the open square. John was stood in the middle of the square next to Goran, who seemed to not be in a better mood today either.

"Colonel." John looked relieved to see her approach, Goran must've been regalling him with another story of his youth.

"Captain!" He said perhaps too enthusiastically. "Apologies Goran, i need to check in with the Captain here." John gave the older man an awkward pat on the shoulder, befofe moving around him and quickly off to the side.

Alice dipped her head respectfully at Goran before following John down a secluded alley that led back towards the gate. "You looked like you were about to shoot him." Alice said when he finally stopped.

John shook his head and pursed his lips. "Just be glad you showed up when you did." Alice couldn't help but smile. "Now, what's the situation?"

Alice filled in what Teyla and Rodney had been up to since he'd been gone. She hesitated, "honestly though, i can't be around it...her...without feeling like i'll turn my back for a second and it'll be over." She felt slightly embarrassed admitting this out loud.

To her surprise John just nodded understandingly. "I know what you mean, it gave both Ronon and I the creeps." He sighed, "but if it's real..."

"I know, I'll just feel a lot better when Carson confirms it." She shivered slightly, hoping that they wouldn't need to venture back to the cave anytime soon.

"You looking forward to go back to Earth?" John smiled sympathetically at her.

Alice just shrugged, honestly she hadn't given it much thought. She hadn't stepped foot on her home planet in over a year, and she didn't exactly miss it. Especially since the best parts of that world were now with her on Atlantis. "Evan's given me a list a mile long of things he wants me to bring back."

John chuckled, "am i allowed to add to that?"

Alice raised her eyebrows, "i don't think pizza would last the three week trip back on the Daedalus."

Before John could reply shouting from the village caught their attention. Alice led the way back, Callup and Goran were amongst a large crowd of villagers gathered on the opposite edge of the village. "Colonel! Captain! Over here." Callup's face was white and his voice was shrill.

Dread filled Alice as she continued to run over to the crowd, John was right on her tail. Alice had seen what the wraith could do to people, it wasn't new to her at all. But this was different, there was hardly anything left, the husk lying on the ground in the middle of the crowd didn't even look human anymore. Bile rose in the back of her throat. She tried to swallow down the lump she felt forming.

She could feel John's gaze on her, but she couldn't take her eyes of the corpse. It was dry, and it's mouth was open and twisted. She could almost feel the terror passing through to her as she stared into its face. There was no way to even tell if it was male or female.

John pushed on her shoulder, spinning her around so she was facing away from the corpse. She was pretty sure her face was as white as chalk and probably had a similar look of fear that Rodney normally wore. She could see the worry in John's face, as his forehead creased and his eyes narrowed.

He lifted his hand up and activated his radio. "Teyla, this is Sheppard. Come in?"

"Go ahead, Colonel." Teyla's voice brought Alice back into reality. She could hear the tension in Teyla's voice.

"Is Ellia still in the cave?" John's lower jaw was clenched tightly

"Yes."

"She been there the whole time?" John pressed her further.

"Yes, why?" Teyla's voice crackled through the radio, Alice shared John's concerned look.

"We just found another victim." He stated darkly. Alice had to force herself not to look back as the villagers removed the corpse from the square. "Apparently he's only been missing a couple of hours, which means she couldn't have done it."

Alice took in a deep breath, as if she could clear her mind with some fresh air. "You okay?" John put his hand on her shoulder and lightly rubbed his thumb over her chin.

She swallowed again, wanting to be sure her voice was steady. "Yeah, i've just never seen one that..."

"I know what you mean, there's normally more left." John cast a glance back over at the spot the body had been. "Looks like Zaddik might have been telling the truth after all."

Alice just nodded in agreement. John took his canteen out of his pack and oheld it out to her, "drink." It wasn't an offer, it was an order. Alice took the bottle gratefully and took a big sip. The cool water helped, she felt it sink down her throat and sent almost electrical zaps down her extremities.

Alice smiled at John, "thank you." She murmured passing back the canteen. He returned the smile and stared down at her face.

It was the same face he made when he was thinking about kissing her, it disappeared quickly though. They both knew the mission needed to come first.

Alice saw Goran talking heatedly with a small group of villagers. They all seemed shaken by this last attack, given the information they'd shared with her team this was the first attack in broad daylight, so she could understand why it would make them nervous.

Goran saw Alice looking over at him and took it as his cue to approach them. "Colonel Sheppard, is there any progress with this hunt?" All friendliness disappeared from his tone.

"We're workin' on it." John was trying to keep his light and diplomatic.

"Maybe we can help you." Goran gestured to the other angry faced villagers gathering around them.

John looked cautiously at them. "That won't be necessary."

"We're sick of doing nothing! We're sick of being afraid all the time. That thing is hunting in daylight now! We'll never be safe." Callup stepped up next to Goran, holding his head high. Alice was impressed normally villagers of this level were normally too intimidated to stand up to them like this.

"Just be patient. We'll take care of it!" John's voice was harder now, he narrowed his eyes and then walked away gesturing for Alice to follow him.

—————

Alice was back outside guarding the cave, Ronon had just come out to join her. It almost seemed like he was trying to pick up the other wraith's scent in the air.

"Do you believe him?" She asked, keeping her voice low.

"She's a wraith. Does it matter?" Ronon replied simply.

Alice knew it would be a lot more complicated than that. But she didn't want to say anything.

"Teyla's going to try get Ellia to communicate with the wraith and see if she can determine a position." John walked out of the depths of the cave.

It seemed that Ronon didn't like the idea of Teyla being alone and in close proximity to the wraith, he grunted and headed back into the cave. "Do you think they'll ever...?" Alice watched Ronon's form disappear into the shadows.

John turned to look back at Ronon. "What? Teyla and Ronon?" Alice nodded. "Nah! He's just as protective around you."

Alice raised her eyebrows. "We'll see. Evan and I have a bet going."

John rolled his eyes, "come on, let's make sure he's not ripping anyone's head off."

Alice followed him back through the dark cave, Rodney was once again examining the contents of Zaddik's lab, Carson was busy looking through his microscope. Ronon was sat on a bench watching Zaddik with a stoney expression. She had to give it to the old scientist, Ronon could be a pretty terrifying guy and he was doing a good job of pretending he wasn't afraid of him.

John walked up behind Carson to snoop on his work. Alice stood near the doorway with her back against the wall, her hands still holding onto her P90. Teyla appeared from one of the rooms deeper in the cave. "Zaddik? Is there a river nearby?"

Zaddik stood up, "Yes, just to the east."

Teyla nodded and retrieved her gun from one of the workbenches.

John straightened up and prepared his gun. Ronon quickly followed suit, looking eager to be hunting again. "All right, let's go. McKay, stay here and help Beckett."

Rodney looked at John. "Ah, medical research? Not really my thing."

John cocked an eyebrow at him. "And hunting Wraith?"

Alice smiled as Rodney looked extremely chagrined. "Uh, I could stay ... and ... help ... Beckett."

John gave him a We thought as much' look, and headed out of the cave behind Ronon.

"Call us if you need anything." Alice smiled at them and backed out of the lab.

————

Alice stood on the edge of a river bank, watching as John and Teyla made their way over the rocky riverbed. She could just about hear Teyla talking to John, she took a few steps along the bank catching up to where Ronon was bent down staring at the ground.

He was gently poking the edges of an imprint in the dirt. Alice looked warily at the trees surrounding them. "You got something?"

Ronon squinted and stared into the trees directly across the from them. "Fresh tracks. It's him."

Teyla and John came up behind them. "Now do you believe?"

John didn't look convinced. "I still think there's something more to this than she and Zaddik are telling us."

Ronon rose to his feet and gestured ahead. "He's headin' upstream, into the hills."

Without waiting for any acknowledgement, Ronon once again took off in the direction he'd indicated. "Hey! Wait up." Alice followed briskly after him.

Ronon kept them moving at a ridiculously pace. She hadn't realised that he'd intentionally slowed because of Rodney. I guess he assumed they were all trained for this kind of mission. He wasn't exactly wrong, but everyone except Ronon was starting to slow down. The forest was hot and even though she didn't have her jacket on her clothes were starting to stick to her body.

"Hold up!" John called, Alice looked back and saw him leaning down towards his radio. She clicked her volume up so she could listen in.

Rodney's voice was a sharp whisper. "The villagers are on the move, and it doesn't look like they're goin' to a picnic."

"They headin' for the caves?" John breathed. Alice took the brief pause to take a sip from her canteen.

"Not at the moment, no."

"All right, get back there and sit tight." John swung his head around to look at Teyla, Alice and Ronon. "We're losin' time, guys."

Ronon took this as his cue to speed things up, they were in much denser forest now which made moving fast difficult. But they continued to push ahead, Ronon was grunting as he forcibly pushed branches and smaller trees aside. Not wanting to catch the business end of a branch, she slowed down and made John take the position behind him.

Teyla looked like she hadn't broken a sweat, but then this climate was very similar to her original homeworld. Alice pushed a few stray hairs out of her face and behind her ear. Her other hand was still gripped onto her gun.

The radio began to chirp again. It was probably just Rodney asking if they were heading back soon.

"Colonel Sheppard, come in!" She hadn't been expecting Carson to be on the other end and he sounded in a panic.

"Go ahead." John said calmly.

"We've got another problem. Ellia's gone, and she's injected herself with the retrovirus."

John cursed and looked around them sharply. "Why would she do that?"

"She must've overheard us talking about it." Alice could hear the guilt in Carson's voice. "I told Zaddik it might be the key to makin' her human."

"Look! Ronon says we're close ..." John looked at Ronon for confirmation, Ronon just grunted. "If we lose the trail now, we may never catch the Wraith!" Alice blew a stream of air up her face, Ronon had said they were close an hour ago...

"Rodney and I will find her!"

John didn't look like he liked that plan at all. "All right, but be careful!"

————

"Are you sure we should've let them go after Ellia alone?" Alice quickened her pace so she was side-by-side with John.

Before he could reply Ronon rushed forward and into a makeshit camp. Alice, John and Teyla followed more cautiously, raising their guns.

"Sheppard?" Ronon called out from inside the camp. John walked over so he could see inside.

"This is where he's been making camp." Alice looked over her shoulder, keeping her gun up and ready. "He was here less than an hour ago."

Everyone tensed, as if the wraith would jump out at them at any moment. "Maybe he caught onto us?" Alice paused. "Carson and Rodney."

John gave her a nod and let Ronon lead them back towards the cave.

They tried to keep a fast pace back, but the forest seemed even denser now making their progress frustratingly slow. A shot rang out through the forest, it was definitely from an Earth weapon.

Alice's blood went cold "Rodney! That way." Alice pushed past Ronon and took off as fast as she could towards the shot.

They were still too far away, Alice tried to keep pictures of finding Rodney and Carson's lifeless bodies our of her mind. This was quickly turning into one of her nightmares. She could hear the others following after her, Ronon had caught up easily and was now keeping pace with her. Another shot echoed through the trees, she didn't stop this time. They were still alive.

Alice could faintly hear voices, "they're over here!" She called back. Ronon pushed past her with his gun armed and led them through. Zaddick was lying on the ground, a small amount of blood was coming out of his mouth. Carson was kneeling next to him and Rodney was arguing with the villagers, both looked unharmed.

Callup stepped away from the mob. "There's another one of those things out there. Look what it did to Zaddik! I say we go after it now!"

Alice and Teyla skirted the edges of the clearing, checking for any sign of either Wraith.

"No one's goin' anywhere. We'll handle this! Stay calm." John used his authoratitive tone, then softened it as he turned to Carson. "How is he?"

Alice could tell just by the look on Carson's face that it wasn't good. Zaddik wasn't going to make it out of the forest. She tried to listen as Zaddik explained who he really was to Goran.

"All right. Teyla? Ronon? You're with me. Riles stay with Beckett and Rodney." Alice nodded, John knew that she wasn't going to let them out of her sight no matter what he'd ordered. "The rest of you stay here."

Carson stepped away from Zaddik and lowered his voice. "Colonel, the retrovirus is acting quickly. The human part of her is almost gone."

"You said she killed the other Wraith and saved McKay's life."

The concern in Carson's face was clear. "Yes, but I'm not sure she knew what she was doing. She's operatin' on a purely animal level right now."

Alice couldn't believe she was about to say this. "Can we do anything to help her?"

"I might be able to reverse the effects, if you bring her back alive, but I doubt she'll cooperate. She's also stronger and faster than any Wraith I've ever seen."

John gave him a sarcastic smile. "Great!"

"Good luck Colonel." Alice took out one of her extra ammo cartridges and handed it to him. He took it gratefully.

Alice watched the team head out. The villagers left here looked both scared and bereaved as they watched Goran and Zaddik say their final goodbyes. It wasn't long after that Zaddik took his last breath.

Carson packed away his med-kit. "You okay doc?" Alice grabbed a few of the scattered pieces and handed them to Carson.

"I'm fine lass. Thanks." He voice quivered slightly. Out of all the doctors she'd worked with Carson was one of the most compassionate, losing a patient was never easy for him.

"We would like to take Zaddik back to the village, please." Alice stood up and looked at Goran, she couldn't imagine what he was feeling.

"I'm sorry, until Colonel Sheppard comes back it's safer for all of us to stay in one place." Alice placed her hand on his shoulder. "I am very sorry for your loss, your son was a good man."

Tears fell from Goran's eyes as he nodded silently and walked back to keep vigil beside his son's body. Alice and Carson exchanged sad looks, "are you sure they're going to be okay?" Rodney paced over to them, his eyes focused on where the team had left.

"They've got Ronon, they'll be fine." Alice said reassuringly. A few shots sounded in the distance. Alice took in a deep breath, the villagers started whispering. The last thing they needed right now was scared people running off on their own. "Everything is fine, please stay calm. We'll be able to head back to the village very shortly."

A few more minutes went by, they didn't hear any more shots. "We should have heard from them, right?" Rodney whispered at Alice.

"I'm sure-" her radio crackled.

"Riles, we got her. We're heading back to the village now. Teyla will need some medical attention."

"Copy that. We'll meet you back there." Alice turned back to the group. "Okay, it's safe to head back now."

Goran, Callup, Carson and another man helped carry Zaddik's body back. Rodney stayed close to Alice as she led them back.

John, Teyla and Ronon beat them back and were standing in the square for them. Teyla had her hand holding some medical gauze to the back of her head. She could also see dried blood covering the side of John's arm. "Are you all okay? What happened?"

Alice headed straight for them, swinging Carson's medical pack off her back and around so she could open it. Carson must've changed places with another villager, as he was quickly on her heels and held out his hand for the pack. He went straight to Teyla, whilst Alice went to John.

There was a very badly wrapped bandage covering a wound on his arm. It was loose and looked like it had already started soaking through. "Did you do this yourself?" Alice raised her eyebrows at him.

He just winced as she slowly peeled the gauze back. It was hard to see the cut through all the blood. "Uhh...Carson!" Alice called warily, stepping away so the doc could take her spot.

He immediately grabbed Alice's hand and clamped it down just above the wound. "Keep pressure on it. We need to get him back now."


	17. Chapter 17

**A/N Happy Monday everyone!**

 **I hope you enjoy the new chapter.**

Alice kept the pressure on John's arm until they stepped through into the Atlantis Gateroom, where a set of medics were stood waiting off to the side.

Slightly bewildered she held up her hands as the rushing medics pushed her to the side in order to load John onto a gurney. She couldn't help but watch in amusement as he tried to convince them that he wasn't bad enough to warrant that treatment, but at least he didn't resist. Though his face was a blatant mix of embarrassment and annoyance.

Rodney followed after them, he had been whinging non-stop about a splinter in his finger the entire journey back to the gate. Teyla rolled her eyes at Rodney's complaining, she looked ready to get back into the field but the medics working on her suggested she follow after them as well.

Alice's eyes stayed trained on John until the medics turned a corner and he vanished out of her sight. She let out the breath she hadn't realised she was holding.

The previously busy gateroom was now empty, leaving just Ronon and her alone in front of the gate. Ronon swayed awkwardly, he cocked his head towards her. "So. Lunch?"

"Really?" She raised her eyebrows at him. "I've kinda lost my appetite." She gestured to her hands, which were covered in John's blood. The sight of it almost made her sick, she'd never been very good with blood. She carefully drew in a breath, trying not to let the rust-y tang of his blood reach her nose.

"Food will be good for you. I'll meet you there." Ronon unclipped his gun belt and headed towards the armoury.

She stared after him wild eyed, he just didn't know how to take no for an answer. "Y'know the universe doesn't revolve around food!" She shouted after him, but he didn't even turn around.

She bit her lip, looking down at her blood soaked hands. The only thing she wanted to do right now was scrub the living hell out of her hands to eliminate any trace of John's blood. The sad thing was this wasn't the first time she'd been covered in his blood, and it wasn't likely to be the last either. But that was the job, right?

Sighing and keeping her hands as far away from her nose as possible, she headed for the closest bathroom.

—————

Alice had her feet up on the chair next to her, her full tray sat in front of her. Despite her protests, Ronon had already had the tray ready for her by the time she showed up. She was staring off into the distance, unconsciously rubbing where the blood had been on her hands. She still felt like she could smell it on her.

Ronon was sat opposite her, still working through his food. The mess hall had emptied considerably since they'd arrived. People had headed back to their stations or to the gateroom for missions. Evan had joined them at some point, but Alice hadn't really been paying attention. He must've been rotating off his shift. Ronon had updated him on their mission, Alice had commented occasionally. However, they'd been sitting together in silence for at least the last 20 minutes.

"How long does it take to stitch up an arm?" Alice huffed, sinking further into her chair.

"Maybe Carson had to knock him out?" Evan offered.

"I guess. In any case, if it's taken this long we're probably off duty now." Alice slipped her feet of the chair. She needed to take her mind off John and the others. "You up for a little spar?" She looked at Evan.

Evan raised his eyebrows and looked at her. "Maybe something less strenuous. I'd rather not be puked on." She wasn't sure how he could tell she was still feeling a bit nauseas.

Alice stuck her tongue out at him. "Fine. What about you Ronon?"

"I'm going to go for a run." He used the back of his hand to wipe his mouth, before he stood up and stretched.

She'd been on a few of his training runs before, they were torturous. She'd given up going after a couple of weeks, John however still entertained the idea that he would one day be able to keep up and maybe beat Ronon.

She shuddered "no thanks." Huffing, she laid her head down onto her crossed arms. "What do you want to do then?" She looked over at Evan again.

"Well i'm supposed to be running a training class for the rookies in about 15 minutes." He checked the time on his watch. "How do you feel about coming along and putting them through the Wraith training? You know that always cheers you up." He smirked down at her.

Alice picked her head off the table, smiling. "Sounds like a great idea."

————-

Alice knocked on John's door for the third time. Evan had been right, torturing the rookies had been able to take Alice's mind off John and her team. Though it hadn't lasted long, during one of the exercises Alice had snuck out and headed for John's quarters. She was sure Evan wouldn't notice her absence for a while at least.

Surely, he'd be out of the infirmary now. Scratching the back of her neck she looked around to see if anyone was paying attention to her. Satisfied people were minding their own business, Alice cleared her throat. "Command override, Colonel Sheppard alpha romeo seirra."

Okay, she wasn't exactly supposed to use John's command code. She shouldn't really know it in the first place, but John constantly used it to get into her room so she'd heard it enough to memorise it.

She poked her head into his room, it was empty and didn't look like he'd been back there. She sighed and closed the door again. Where was he...she'd checked the infirmary but Carson had said he'd already discharged him. Teyla had still been there though, she didn't look pleased she was being put under the scanner, for what Alice assumed wasn't the first time.

Next, Alice had checked the mess hall but no luck. She placed her hands on her hips, maybe he was with Rodney.

She started walking down the corridor. "Aly-cat!" Evan jogged a few paces to catch up to her. "You just ditched?"

Alice nodded, but kept walking. "Sorry, but i just wanted to check in with Sheppard. I just can't find him."

Evan smiled, Alice gave him a suspicious look. "What?"

He shook his head. "You're just such a great girlfriend." Alice was about to give him a snarky reply, but he held his hand up. "Come on then I'll help you look."

Alice smiled and together they headed for Rodney's lab. "Okay, so if he isn't in Rodney's lab then where next?" Evan swiped his hand over a door panel. "Have you tried his radio?"

Alice gave him a deadpan look. "Of course I have." She turned back so her eyes were facing ahead. "Oh, great." She groaned.

Just ahead of them was Dakota. Ever since Alice and Evan had put in their operation: fake relationship, Dakota had become insufferable. Every time she saw them together she had to make it seem like a big event, drawing attention to them. It was worse though when she cornered Alice alone. If she managed to get Alice alone, any personal boundaries seemed to disappear. No topic or question seemed to be off-limits.

Evan reacted before Alice could though, he grabbed her hand in his and dropped his head down towards her. "Only a couple more weeks, then we can stage that massive break up." He whispered softly into her ear. He lent down and kissed her.

Alice closed her eyes and let her brain wander. Evan was a great kisser and he'd always had the ability to forget everything as soon as his lips touched hers. But his touch still had nothing on John's. When John kissed her she felt every neurone in her brain firing at it's maximum. It was like every cell in her body went into overdrive, it drove her crazy.

Evan pulled back and pressed a small kiss on the edge of her mouth. Alice opened her eyes and stared directly into his. Although it was quick she didn't miss the small look of longing as Evan stared back down at her. Someone loudly cleared their throat next to them. Alice turned her head to see Dakota standing beside them with a wide grin on her face.

Evan wrapped his arm around Alice's shoulder. "Hey, Dakota. Aren't you supposed to be on a mission?" Evan sighed exasperatedly.

"I'm on my way there, but just had to say hi." She smiled wickedly. "Besides, i heard Sheppard was around here somewhere."

"You still crushing on him?" Alice said, trying not to let any annoyance slip into her tone. For the last month or so Dakota had become slightly more persistent in her mission to sleep with John. He found it amusing, mostly because of how badly it ruffled Alice's feathers.

"You'd be crazy not to." Dakota looked between the couple, her smile grew. "Well speak of the devil." Alice twisted her head around to see a very pissed off John heading towards her. She bit down on her inner lip, though they'd discussed it she'd still rather John not be around when Evan and her were pretending to be a thing.

Before Alice could say anything, John threw his hands on Evan's shoulders, ripping him out of Alice's grasp and slamming him hard against the wall. "Get your hands off her!"

"John!" Alice and Dakota stared in frozen in shock.

Evan struggled back against him. "What's going on!?" Evan managed to pry John's hands off him. But that turned out to be a mistake, John pulled his arm back and his fist connected with the side of Evan's face.

Alice tried to run forward but Dakota held her back. Evan had pushed back now, he'd tried to hold his hands up to diffuse the situation, but John didn't seem to be in any mood to stop now. It was a full blown fight now.

Other people had noticed the commotion and had started gathering around. Even the soldiers that had gathered to watch looked like they didn't want to get involved. They'd already started putting bets on who they thought would win.

Alice was stood at the front of the crowd watching in despair. Dakota and someone else had the arms across her shoulders holding her back. "Let me go!" She shouted at them as a spray of blood flew from Evan's mouth.

She finally took her eyes off the fight and looked up at who was holding her back. It was Lloyd, she stomped down hard on his foot. She'd pay him back later. Lloyd cried out in pain, his grip on her slackened and she threw her arms down to detach his from her. Once she was free she dove forward quickly to push her way in between John and Evan.

After some great effort she was able to separate them. Blood trickled down from the side of Evan's mouth as he panted, his eyes trained on John. John didn't look like he'd been damaged much, he had a small cut on his eyebrow but that was it.

"What is your problem?!" She yelled, holding the two men apart with her palms on their chests. The soldiers in the crowd around them were protesting, telling Alice to get out of the way.

John's gaze slowly moved down till his eyes found hers. His expression caused her to flinch and pull her hand back from him. The whole time she'd known him, she'd never seen so much rage, anger and jeaously covering his face. He looked back between Evan and Alice. "Stay away from her. She's mine." The threat was as cold as ice.

"Excuse me?" Alice watched as John blinked slowly, his eyes locked on her again. Without Alice's hand on his chest anymore he easily stepped around her and shoved Evan hard into the wall, before grabbing Alice's face in his hands and smashing his lips onto hers. Alice let out a muffled squeak, John had his hands locked around her head so she couldn't break free.

"What's going on here?" Elizabeth shouted. Her voice seemed to shock John out of whatever he was doing.

Alice pulled away from him, slightly uneasily. John was staring blankly at the floor, as though he couldn't quite figure out what had just happened.

Elizabeth looked back and forth between John, Evan, Alice, and the crowd gathered around them. All of whom suddenly remembered they had to be back to work. Alice swallowed, trying to think of something to say. "Well is someone going to tell me?"

Evan moved forward putting himself in between Alice and John. "Um, sorry ma'am..." before he could make up an excuse the overhead intercomm activated.

"Colonel Sheppard. Dr Weir. Please report to the infirmary immediately." Elizabeth narrowed her eyes, Alice knew she was pissed off at them. Keeping the peace amongst the staff could be difficult at the best of times, the last thing she needed were her three most senior military personnel at each other's throats.

Elizabeth gave them an icy glare then indicated with her index finger for John to follow as she walked towards the infirmary.

John followed silently, keeping his eyes glued to the floor and his head down. Alice felt slightly guilty that she let out a sigh of relief as John walked out of sight.

"Woah..." Evan broke the silence. Alice looked over to see him wiping a bit of blood from his jaw.

"Oh god Evan, you're bleeding." She moved forward gingerly touching his slightly swollen face.

"I'm fine." He gave her a reassuring smile, "I think we've got bigger problems to worry about."

"Shit..." The blood ran from Alice's face, up till now her body had been filled with so much adrenaline she hadn't really thought about what just happened, and who had seen it happen. "We're screwed..."

————-

Alice went straight to her room, she wished she could have slammed the door. Evan had followed after her. "Two weeks!! That was it." She dropped down onto the floor. They were so close. She put her head in her hands. Elizabeth was smart, it wouldn't take her much to put together the pieces after what she'd just seen. "What do i say to her?" Tears pricked in the corner of her eyes.

Evan had just been checking his jaw and mouth in the mirror. He sighed and moved across to the sofa. "Honestly Aly. I don't know."

It wasn't just this that was bothering Alice though. She'd never seen John that angry before. He'd actually frightened her. And she had no idea why. He knew about her and Evan's plan, and why did Carson need him back in the infirmary.

Alice started breathing quickly, anxiety filling her chest. What were they going to do...

"Calm down Aly. Just take a breath." Evan stood up and placed his hands on her shoulder. "Maybe it's best to go talk to Elizabeth? She's going to talk to you anyway, might as well not suffer waiting."

"You're right." She stood up abruptly, deciding she'd rather get it over sooner than later. "Wish me luck." She took a deep breath and headed for Elizabeth's office.

———

She walked slowly past the control room, ignoring the looks she got from a few of the technicians, the rumours had already started spreading. She paused to adjust her jacket before walking across the gantry. She could see Elizabeth staring down at her datapad with a serious expression through the glass.

Alice took in a deep breath and knocked on the door frame. Elizabeth looked up slightly startled. "Captain" she cleared her throat. "Come in."

Alice hesitated slightly, it wasn't a good sign she addressed her by rank, but she stepped in and stood in front of Elizabeth's desk. "Elizabeth, I wanted to talk about what happened earlier."

"Captain." Elizabeth held up her hand. "Colonel Sheppard has been quarantined to the infirmary." Alice's eyes widened in surprise. Elizabeth continued before she could say anything. "He was infected by the retrovirus that Ellia took. Carson says it has already started to infect his system and has significantly impaired his judgement."

Alice listened closely. The worry about being found out was replaced with her concern about John's welfare. The memory of John's rage and jealousy flashed in her mind. "So that's why..." she trailed off.

Elizabeth leaned forward and clasped her hands together. "That's what the official report will say." She narrowed her eyes slightly at Alice. "However, I think we both know it's a lot more than that."

Alice dropped her head. "Elizabeth, I'm so sor-"

Elizabeth shook her head, she kept her eyes stern. "Colonel Cauldwell will be staying on to oversee the security of the base whilst Sheppard recovers. I can't say he will be as understanding of this...situation." She sighed. "We have to report into the SGC about Sheppard and the Daedalus, you and the others scheduled on the next dial in will be going through then."

Alice's eyes widened and her head shot up, she opened her mouth to protest, but Elizabeth's hard look stopped her. "You have a lot at risk Alice." Her eyes softened. "i know you want to stay for John. But if you stay i can't promise that either of you will be able to escape this."

Alice's heart felt like a heavy weight that had just dropped into her stomach. "I'll pack my things."

"We'll do everything in our power to save him." Elizabeth said reassuringly.

Alice turned to leave, but hesitated. "Thank you." She whispered just loud enough for Elizabeth to hear. She felt like she was in a dream, nothing felt real. She let her feet carry her out of the office and through the halls of Atlantis.

She wasn't sure how long she was wondering around for, before she looked up and realised she was stood infront of the infirmary.

She stepped through the doors and looked around the room. Carson was sat at one of the laptop stations, his brow was tightly knitted together as he stared at his laptop. "Carson?" She said softly.

He looked up and smiled. "Hello my dear."

Alice had always felt grateful they had someone like Carson on their side, always there ready to save them.

Alice placed her elbows on his desk and clasped her hands together. "How's he doing?" She nodded her head towards the cornered off area towards the back of the room.

"He's..." Carson trailed off. "He's not exactly himself." He said finally.

Alice nodded absent-mindedly. "Elizabeth said it doesn't look good."

Carson's lips pursed. She knew he'd ever admit to having a hopeless case, but she could almost see it in his eyes. "There's still a lot we don't know about the retrovirus. But we're not giving up."

Alice gave him a hollow smile. "Thanks Carson." She stood up and looked over at the blocked off bed. "I'm being shipped back to Earth in the morning, is it okay if i say goodbye?"

Carson nodded, "i think it's time for a coffee break anyway." He gave her a warm smile and headed for the door.

Alice nodded her thanks and headed straight for John. Her hand hovered over the edge of the curtain for a moment before pushing it aside and slipping in.

John was lying on his back, his eyes were closed. She could see a slight tinge of blue on his neck just showing from under his collar. She pulled the stool over and sat down, she took in his appearance for a few seconds. She didn't know what she wanted to say. She reached out and touched John's arm, his skin felt cold under her fingertips and he immediately flinched back. His eyes opening to look at her. "Riles?" His voice croaked as he shuffled up into a sitting position. "Are you okay?"

"you're the one genetically mutating and you're worries about me?" She laughed softly. "I'm fine John, and so is Evan."

John looked down at his one hand that was resting over the blanket. "I don't know what happened, It felt like something just took over."

"It's not your fault." Her voice was barely above a whisper. She sniffled. "John, they're shipping me out in a few hours."

His eyes widened. "What? They can't! Talk to Elizabeth i'm sure-"

Alice felt tears well-up in her eyes. "She knows about us John. So do probably half the city by now. We'll be lucky if Cauldwell doesn't." She reached out and took his hand. She felt him try flinch away slightly. "If he finds out and i'm still here, we'll lose everything." She looked up, trying to stop her tears from falling. "You have to promise me you'll fight this. I'll be back and I expect you to be here waiting for me." She squeezed his hand tightly.

John's expression was grim. "Riles..."

Alice slowly dropped her head down onto his chest. She felt his hand come up and stroke the back of her head and his lips gently touch her temple. "Don't give up. That's an order, you hear?" Cold trails of water started dropping down her cheeks,

"I'll be waiting at the gate when you come back. I promise." He said solemly.

Alice sat back up on her chair and nodded. She looked at John's hand, the blue scales had already started spreading to the tips of his fingers. She swallowed, trying to memorise every feature of his face. "John... I-"

He shushed her quietly, moving his hand from her hand to the back of her neck and brought her down into a passionate kiss. "Tell me when you get back."

—————

"You're leaving now?!" Evan stepped into her room.

She was running around like crazy throwing everything essential into a duffel bag on her bed. Nothing was folded. "Yes." She didn't stop to look at him.

"But the Colonel?"

She angrily stuffed her jacket into the bag. "Don't say it like i don't know. I don't have a choice." She took in a breath to calm herself. "If I don't go then it could be a lot worse."

Evan grimaced and sighed. "Do you need any help?"

She walked over to him and grabbed his hands. "Keep him alive." It wasn't fair of her to ask Evan for this. It was out of his power, but it would make her feel better knowing someone would be looking out for him while she was gone. Although she knew Teyla, Ronon and even Rodney would do everything in their power to save him.

Evan pulled her into a tight hug. "I'll miss you Aly-cat. Don't be gone for too long." Her throat tightened and her eyes burned. She just nodded against him, knowing if she tried to say anything she might break down completely.

———-

She'd been preparing to leave for weeks now, but she'd never expect it would be under these circumstances. Or with the weight that even if she came back, John wouldn't be here. She shook her head, that wasn't going to happen.

Alice stood infront of the active gate, Evan and Elizabeth were standing next to her, along with Teyla, Ronon and Rodney.

Teyla had her hand resting on Alice's shoulder reassuringly. "We won't stop until Colonel Sheppard is back to himself." She dipped her head respectfully.

Alice did the same gently touching her forehead to Teyla's. "I know you will. Thank you."

"See you later kid." Ronon stepped forward and tightly embraced Alice.

She couldn't help but smile. "Who are you calling a kid?"

Rodney shuffled awkwardly as Alice looked at him next. "You'll have no trouble with your exams, and Sam will be there if you need anything."

"I know Rodney." She threw her arms around him and kissed his cheek. "Thanks for everything."

Rodney's face was bright red when she pulled back. "Good luck." He said sincerly.

Alice picked up her duffle bag from the floor and faced Elizabeth. Alice knew John and her had disppointed Elizabeth, but she still had their best interests at heart. "Good luck Captain. We look forward to welcoming you back."

Alice smiled gratefully at her, before giving the group a last look. Evan stood at attention and gave her a respectful salute that she returned. Before cracking a smile and stepped towards the group gathered infront of the gate. She wasn't the only one who's departure date had been moved up. At the very least it meant her departure would look less suspicious, as most of them had been due to ship out the same day as her. She took one last look at the gateroom, exhaled and stepped through.

The first thing she heard was the metal clang of her boots on the metal gangway. She could see Walter sitting in the control room and the usual security teams mulling about helping the Atlantis personnel with their belongings. There was a point in time Alice thought she would never see the SGC ever again, back then she always thought she'd be happy to see it.

 **A/N The secret is out!! The next chapter is going to be a bit of a SG-1/SGA crossover.**

 **Let me know what you thought of the chapter in the reviews.**


	18. Chapter 18

**A/N Hiya!!**

 **As i mentioned in my last chapter this one is going to be a bit of a cross over with SG1, so not much John/Alice interaction.**

 **So if this isn't really for you, you're in luck as the reason this update is a bit delayed is I've also written the next chapter which has plenty of John/Alice moments. I'd still suggest reading the first bit of this chapter just to see how Alice handles being away from John during a bad time.**

 **Now, onto the chapter. Happy readings!**

Alice sat alone in the SGC cafeteria. It was around 2am. She'd left Atlantis over three days ago and there was still no word on John.

She'd been trying to go about her normal business, attending every debriefing, updating General's O'Neill and Landry and the Wraith situation and joining training sessions with other SG teams. But she felt like she was barely keeping it together.

In those three days, she hadn't managed to sleep once. Every time she closed her eyes she saw John, the blue tinge taking over his body and slowly turning him into a Wraith. She had so much built up tension and anxiety she was pretty sure a balloon popping would give her a heart attack. Her fingernails were bloody messes, she had a bad habit of biting and picking her nails when she was anxious. Normally, it wasn't so bad, but at the end of this she'd be lucky if she had any nails left at all.

The warm smell of coffee had drawn her into the cafeteria, it reminded her of home, and when she sat down and closed her eyes she could almost imagine she was back in the large mess hall of Atlantis with John and the team sat across from her laughing and joking around. This was the first time in her life that she actually felt homesick, sadly she thought, it was because Atlantis was the first place that had really ever felt like home to her.

Each night she'd spent hunched over a cup of coffee trying to mentally will the gate to dial and Atlantis be on the other end. The first night a few old friends from her time at the SGC had come up and tried to keep her company, but this ended up doing more harm than good. When Alice had left she'd known most of the military personnel assigned to the 25 SG teams, she'd come back to find a lot of them had lost their lives in the fight against the Ori. So, whenever someone came over to 'catch up' the conversation would inevitably ended in a grief-stricken silence as she'd ask how one of her old friends was doing and be met with the a blank, foreboding expression as they steeled themselves to tell her the bad news.

Tonight, no one had tried to come up and speak to her. It was probably for the best, Alice wasn't sure how much more she could take. They'd lost so many good people over the past year in Atlantis, she'd been stupid to assume the same wouldn't be happening here.

She stared blankly down at her cup of coffee, she'd barely taken a sip and she could feel through the mug it's tepid temperature. Her hands had started trembling, she wasn't sure if it was her fear or too much caffeine. But, her grip on the cup was air tight. She couldn't bear to let it out of her grip though, at the moment it felt like it was the only thing holding her together.

The SGC had been quieter than usual, from what Alice had gathered there had been an incident just before she'd arrived and it had cost the lives of a few marines. She'd seen Richard Woolsey and Dr. Jackson arguing in the halls not long after she'd arrived about someone called Khalek. She'd been too far away to make out anymore than that.

"Burning the midnight oil Captain?" Alice blinked refocusing her vision. A man in an SG team uniform was standing in front of her, it took her longer than normal to realise that he was also a Lt. Colonel. She accidently kneed the table as she clumsily scrambled to her feet. "Relax Captain. Can I join you?" The colonel chuckled slightly and pointed to the chair across from her.

"Of course sir." Despite his friendly demeanor she kept her shoulders tense and straightened her posture, as he sat down in the seat.

"Call me Cam." He held his hand out to her, "you're Alice Riley, part of Colonel Sheppard's team right?"

Alice shook it, giving him a curious look. "Yes sir-Cam" she quickly corrected herself. Then it hit her. "You're the leader of SG1!" She said mostly to herself.

"Yep, that's me!" He said cheerfully. He took a sip of his coffee. "How have things been going in Atlantis?"

Alice's eyes dropped back down to her mug. Her throat tightened. "Not great, Colonel Sheppard was infected with a Wraith retrovirus. He was in bad shape when i left…there's been no word yet." Images of the blue tinge spreading up John's neck flashed before her eyes. Not knowing what was happening felt like it was killing her. He had to pull through this, after everything they'd been through to get here, it couldn't end now.

He put his mug gently down onto the table. "Yeah I heard. It's always hard when a member of your team is suffering and there's nothing you can do."

Alice stayed silent for a few moments, usually she didn't appreciate people's empty sentiments, but she knew Cam had experience in these matters. She took in a deep breath. "He's in good hands though." She wasn't sure who she was trying to reassure more. The coffee in her mug had started swaying side to side as the trembling in her hands got worse, she needed to change the subject. "How have things been here? We don't hear much back home except from the Daedalus crew." This wasn't exactly true, all senior members of staff received bi-weekly reports on the SGC's status, Alice had just been slack on keeping up with hers.

Cam leant back in his chair, "about the same as you'd expect. You were on SG4 before right?" Alice nodded again. "The Ori make defeating the Goa'uld feel like child's play."

Alice winced. "And we thought it would all be just about wormholes and spaceships." She gave him a false smile.

"Cheers to that." Cam held up his mug and took another large gulp. "So, what are you doing back here?" Alice explained how she was working towards her doctorate and that her final exams were in a couple of weeks. "Well, congratulations." He gave her a sympathetic look; she was sure she looked terrible. Three days of no sleep and constant anxiety was probably starting to show. "You should try and get some rest. I'm on gate patrol tonight, if Atlantis check in, I'll make sure you're there." He offered kindly.

Alice hesitated, even if she tried she wasn't sure she'd be able to sleep, but she knew Cam wouldn't let this drop. "Thanks Cam, I really appreciate it."

He gave her a small smile as she stood up and dumped her mug in the sink. The dorms were quiet, small rustles and snores were the only thing you could hear in the darkness. Alice headed to the nearest empty bed and gently placed her bag on the floor. As quietly as she could she took off her shoes and placed her radio under her pillow. Then she slipped under the sheets and laid her head down on the pillow, staring blankly up at the bunk above her.

She didn't remember falling asleep, but the sound of the radio caused her to jolt awake. "Captain Riley, Atlantis have just dialled in." It was Cam's voice.

She didn't care about being quiet now. She flung off the blanket, grabbed the radio and ran out the door not even bothering to put her shoes back on. It must've still been late as there was hardly anyone in the corridors.

Alice skidded to a stop and ran up the small staircase into the control room. Cam was stood there looking relaxed and with another cup of coffee in his hands. On the screen in front of him was Elizabeth and Colonel Caldwell. Neither of their expressions gave away anything.

Alice could feel her heart trying to escape from her rib cage, quickly she tried to smooth down her hair and straighten her uniform. Then, swallowing she bracing herself and stepped forward so she would be in the camera shot. "Elizabeth. Colonel." She greeted them trying not to let her voice break under the weight of the emotion she felt. Despite the quick effort to make herself more presentable, she was painfully aware she really looked like a mess.

"Sorry to wake you Alice." Elizabeth greeted her. "We just thought you might want to hear the good news." Alice's heart stopped. "Dr. Beckett was able to reverse the effects of the retrovirus. Colonel Sheppard should be back to his normal self in a couple of days."

All the tension left her body. "That's great to hear, thank you Elizabeth." Alice's voice was slightly shaky.

"Colonel Mitchell, the Daedalus will stay on here until next week and then make our way back." Colonel Caldwell's no nonsense face kept Elizabeth from talking anymore about John's condition. Cam finished up the call and then the gate shut down.

Alice swayed slight, a wave of exhaustion crashed over her. "Whoa, careful there." Cam grabbed her shoulders and directed her to the nearest chair where she dropped down onto. Cam gave her a knowing look. "Team mates, they just always know how to stress you out."

Alice let out a breathy laugh and used the back of her hand to wipe her forehead, she hadn't even noticed that she'd broken out into a cold sweat. "Thanks Cam."

Alice hesitated outside General Landry's door. Her lips were moving as she went through what she was planning to say. Finally, she cleared her throat and knocked on the door.

"Come in." General Landry called.

Alice opened the door and strode in, stopping in front of his desk and saluting. "I hope I'm not bothering you, sir."

Landry returned the salute half heartedly, he wasn't a massive stickler for regulation. "Not at all Captain. What can I do for you?"

Alice stepped forward and held out the envelope, "you may be aware sir that I recently completed my return of service."

Landry looked at her confused and took the envelope off her hands. "No, I wasn't aware."

Alice pulled her shoulders down. "That envelope is a copy of my official discharge papers. I wanted to personally tell you that from next week I will no longer be an officer of the US Air Force."

General Landry opened the letter and looked between it and her. "I see, thank you for letting me know. It's always a shame to lose talented people such as yourself. But you're young and after what you've been through I can't blame you."

Alice swallowed. "I think you misunderstand my intentions sir. I'm currently working towards my doctorate in Astrophysics and would like to reapply to the Atlantis program on the completion of my course."

Landry gave her a considered look before breaking out into a smile. "Well, I look forward to seeing you back in these halls very soon then."

"Thank you, sir." Alice smiled and stood back at attention before she headed back out the door.

Alice sat on the bed in a small hotel room in Pasadena. She'd never been to Los Angeles before, and from what she'd seen so far she wasn't sure she liked it. Compared to Atlantis it was loud, busy and everything felt fake. Though she was pretty sure this was how every city would feel compared to the Ancient city.

She laid back on the bed, holding her tablet up in front of her. She'd spent the last week locked up in the room studying for her exam, and this morning she'd finally walked through the exam hall to complete the final step of her doctorate. Now, she was stuck in a weird limbo. It would be six weeks until she'd receive her results. Six. Long. Weeks.

Alice pulled down on the screen trying to reload her emails, she'd been doing this every five minutes. Since she'd left the SGC she hadn't heard anything from Atlantis or John. Not that she was surprised, since she'd resigned her security clearance had been suspended. This meant she would only receive updates as frequently as any other family member of an expedition member would, which meant it would also have to go through a massive amount of clearance and security checks. They could be checking in right now, and she wouldn't see the message for at least a week.

She groaned and looked at her watch, it was 2 o'clock in the afternoon. It was probably time she got up and found some food. It was difficult not having a schedule or something to do. She changed quickly and wrapped her hair up into a messy bun and headed down to the lobby, slinging her small backpack over her shoulder as she walked.

The lobby of the hotel had large glass panels that covered the entrance, Alice assumed it was their attempt to hide the stained carpets and cigarette burns with the harsh beams of the sun. However, Alice stared through them now intently as she noticed an Air Force officer waiting outside a blacked out car. They could be waiting for anyone, Alice told herself, though a small voice in the back of her said doubted it. This wasn't exactly a fancy hotel, it was very unlikely anyone of importance would be staying here. That only left her.

She tried to stop herself from thinking about what this could mean and started heading towards the main door. He may not even be there for her she kept telling herself. However, as she opened the door and started walking down the stairs he straightened up and looked directly at her. He was definitely there for her. She squinted and tried to make out his face, so far he wasn't someone she recognised. Might as well get this over with. She put on her best serious expression and changed direction so she was heading straight for him. "Afternoon Corporal."

He stood at attention and saluted her. "Captain. I've been sent to collect you and bring you to the airport."

Alice crossed her arms over her chest and raised her eyebrow. "I'm not a Captain anymore Corporal, so you can lose the salute." She looked around to see if there was anyone else around. "What's going on?"

He shook his head slightly. "Sorry ma'am, I was just ordered to escort you to the airport. There's a plane waiting for you. Please." He opened the back door or the car and gestured for her to get in.

Alice was a bit taken back, this had to be something serious. "Under who's orders? And all my stuff is still-"

"That's been taken care of ma'am. And the orders have come down from General O'Neill." He gestured again to the car. "Please ma'am we don't have a lot of time."

If the orders had come from anyone else Alice would have stepped away, but she knew if the ex-SG1 leader had sent for her she needed to shut up and get in the car immediately. She nodded and slipped inside the car.

She was on a plane before she knew it and on her way back to Colorado. Another car was waiting for her at the other end. Alice had no idea what to expect. It could be bad news about Atlantis. But most likely they wouldn't have brought her all the way back for that, it must be something else. She sat thinking of all the different possibilities all the way up until she saw the curve of the Cheyenne Mountain complex.

When she got out of the car she saw Cam was waiting for her at the elevator. "Hi" she said warily. "What's going on?"

Cam looked especially grim. "It's bad... we're calling in everyone for a code seven." he opened the elevator door and held it for Alice. Whatever was happening it had to be serious, code seven meant all active and previous SG team members. "I'm dropping you down then i'm heading out myself. Carter will fill you in on the specifics, but the gist is the Ori have infected the members of SG-6 with the Prior plague." He narrowed his eyes. "It's already spread further than we'd like."

Alice stared at him in horror, whilst she'd been back on Earth she'd brushed up on what had been happening with the Ori and she knew this was bad. They had no cure for this plague. "Of course, I'll head straight for her lab." The elevator hit the 25th floor, Alice stepped out and looked over her shoulder. "Good luck Colonel."

She jogged straight to Sam's lab, "Colonel." Sam had her head down with a look of concentration on her face.

"Captain. Oh I mean Alice." Sam shook her head. "And call me Sam now."

Alice grimaced, she could tell Sam must've been working non-stop on this project. Small shadows had begun to form under her eyes and her expressions didn't quite reach her eyes. She dropped her backpack on the floor and took the free seat in the lab. "How can I help?"

Sam explained the device her and Dr. Lee had been working on. It was designed to prevent the Priors from using their powers, almost like a neural inhibitor. Alice knew she was well out of her depth, but it wasn't like she could refuse, the fate of the whole planet rested on this.

Alice was sat in Sam's lab, almost a week had past since she'd been brought back to the SGC. And so far they'd made little progress. It had been incredibly frustrating. Alice felt guilty for thinking it, but this disaster had been everything she'd been hoping for. A problem she could focus on and take her mind of the fact she was still stuck here on Earth.

A few days ago, an Ancient named Orin had retaken human form to assist them. Alice got the impression him and Sam had some sort of history, but it wasn't the time or place to ask. To her relief, since then they'd actually begun to make some progress on a cure. However, they now had over 5,000 confirmed cases of the plague in the US. The President was on the verge of declaring a national emergency. If they didn't get a handle on this soon, Orin had predicted the disease to infect everyone in North America in the next two weeks.

Alice was sat in Sam's lab staring at her laptop, her fingers hovering over the keyboard. She was trying to write up a letter to John. She had been keeping him updated the last couple of days, as the Daedalus was in the perfect position to relay messages from Earth back to Atlantis. She closed the open email, she couldn't tell him how afraid she was. She was failing, nothing she did seemed to be helping and she was running out of ideas.

Dr. Lee's arrival drew her out of her stupor. "Here, I thought you might need this." Dr. Lee placed a steaming cup of coffee in front of her.

"Thanks." She smiled weakly at him. Neither of them had slept much over the past week, only taking moments to nap when they could. "Hey, can you take a look at this. I noticed this weird fluctuation earlier and I'm not quite sure what it is." Alice shifter her chair aside so Dr. Lee could see her screen.

"Sure." Dr. Lee stood behind her and took a sip of his coffee, squinting as he analysed the wave pattern on her screen. He spat the coffee he'd just sipped back into his mug. "That's it!" He slammed the mug down, spilling coffee everywhere. But, he didn't even notice as he ran back to his laptop and started typing furiously.

Bewildered, Alice looked back at her screen trying to see what Lee had seen. But nothing came to her. "What is it?" she asked urgently.

He threw his hands over his mouth. "We did it!" He said in disbelief. "We need to tell Colonel Carter." He picked up the phone on the wall and began dialling.

"Tell her what?!" but Lee was too busy excitedly speaking down the phone. Standing up she walked over to his computer to see what he'd just done. Then it hit her, the fluctuation she'd thought was an anomaly was the key to the formula they'd been working on. The exact frequency the Prior's mental abilities seemed to be tuned into.

Alice smiled deliriously. They'd actually done it. A few moments later Sam and Cam came running into the room, Alice jumped out of the way so Sam could see the formula. "I can't believe it." Sam muttered.

Cam held up his hands. "Whoa whoa. Someone tell me what this means."

Alice grinned at him. "We can neutralise the Prior's abilities. If we can capture the Prior who infected SG-6, then Orin can synthesize a cure."

Cam nodded. "Okay then. Let's go catch ourselves a Prior." Sam and Cam headed out the door and Alice moved to follow them. "Sorry Alice, you're not cleared for active duty. Stay here, and get some sleep." He had his hand on her shoulder.

Alice felt like arguing, but now Cam had mentioned it she suddenly realised how tired she was. "Okay, good luck." Cam waved as he walked down the hall towards the gateroom.

She waited a few moments, then bleary eyed she headed for the dorms to catch up on two weeks worth of sleep.


	19. Chapter 19

**A/N Anddddd she's back!!!**

Alice stood against the window of the Daedalus, staring out at the hyperspace tunnel they were travelling through. After what felt like a lifetime, she was finally on her way back to the Pegasus galaxy, back to her real home.

The last two months had been difficult. Thankfully, SG-1 been able to counter the effects of the Prior plague and Earth now also had a viable method of preventing them from using their psychic abilities. However, since she was no longer on active duty, her access to the SGC had been restricted and until her results came through she was back to being stuck in limbo. Sam had managed to convince the higher ups that she needed Alice onsite to help with other projects, and it felt like it had before she'd left to go to Atlantis. Though the SGC could feel a bit suffocating, Alice had no where else to go, and being in the SGC meant she was able to see and communicate with John and the team when they dialled in.

But since the Daedalus had entered the Milky Way, she'd not been able to email her team. The next scheduled check in for Atlantis was after she'd boarded the Daedalus, so she'd had to upload her messages into the data stream and trust they'd gotten to them.

They were on the edge of the Milky Way, in the next three hours they'd be in range to Atlantis and she'd be able to contact John again. If Alice was being honest with herself, the distance was making her nervous. This would be her first real relationship, and the thought of it still terrified her.

The last week and half on the Daedalus had felt even longer than her few months at the SGC, because every moment she knew they were getting closer to her home. The worst part though, was that now she wasn't at the SGC she had nothing to focus her mind on anymore, she was completely left up to her own devices and there really wasn't a lot to do on board the intergalactic space vessel. It gave her a lot of time to think about the questions and fears she'd been pushing to the back of her mind since she stepped back through the gate. What if she got back and John had realised this wasn't what he wanted anymore? Or what if it only lasted a couple of months, what would she do then... These kinds of thoughts had been keeping her awake for hours on end, her nightmares had changed from visions of the Wraith to ones of rejection.

Alice sighed as she looked out the window. She spent every evening up here on the observation deck, looking out at the window. Not that there was really anything to see, but the soft hues of the hyperspace window were comforting, they were really the only way she had to tell they were still moving forward. Alice felt her legs trembling, 10 minutes till they were in range. She had her tablet sat on one of the tables behind her, ready for her to send a message to John. It was the middle of the night Atlantis time, so it wasn't likely John would see it straight away but she didn't care the sooner she could speak to him the better.

"Burning the midnight oil?" Alice jumped, she hadn't been expecting to be on this deck at this hour, and she'd be so lost in her own thoughts she'd not heard them approach. She turned to see Colonel Caldwell walking towards her.

She had to resist the urge to salute him or stand at attention. Instead, she pulled down the hem of her blue lined jacket. "Colonel, what are you doing up?"

"Same as you I'm guessing, couldn't seem to sleep." He stopped beside her and stared out at the window. Caldwell's voice always had an unfriendly edge to it that wasn't uncommon amongst older senior military men. She'd always had the feeling Caldwell disliked her, but she didn't have any proof to back it up.

Alice gave him a strained smile. She'd never gotten along well with the Colonel, and after what had happened when she'd left Atlantis, she found herself trying to avoid being alone with him. "You're right, it is quite late." She over exaggerated looking at her watch and began walking away.

"Riley." Caldwell's cold tone stopped Alice dead in her tracks.

She felt incredibly on edge, her skin felt like it was almost ready to jump straight off her bones. She cleared her throat not wanted to let Caldwell know he was getting to her. "Yes sir."

He narrowed his eyes and glared at her. "I know about you and Sheppard. And if you were still military."

Alice felt the hairs on her neck prickle. "But I'm not anymore." She held his glare. "Sir."

"If it was up to me you would both be court martialed and thrown into some dark hole back on Earth." he sneered at her. He stepped closer to her, so he towered over her and he could look down at her.

She wasn't going to be intimidated though. "Good thing it's not up to you." She knew what this was really about, and she knew where to hit where it hurt. "There's a reason they won't give you John's position. You have no place on Atlantis and so long as I'm around you never will." Alice steeled herself for a retort or punch, she was ready for either. But Caldwell just glared, she saw fire in his eyes.

After few moments of tense silence Alice gave him a cocky smile and turned around. "Goodnight Sir."

————

They were only a few hours out from Atlantis now, soon they'd be dropping out of hyperspace and taking up orbit. Two weeks cooped up on a spaceship where the CO had it out for you, wasn't ideal. She'd managed to avoid another confrontation, but she felt his glare on her every time they were in the same room.

Once again she was stood looking out her favourite window. She clutched her jacket tighter around her as a shiver rippled up her spine. Alice was worried about how everyone would perceive her now. Would she still be respected? Would everyone think she'd just been handed the position? Her biggest worry though was if she would regret this decision, the military was all she'd known.

She stood alone staring out as the purple-blue hues of the hyperspace pocket trying to ignore the negative thoughts popping into her mind.

"All personnel to their landing positions." Colonel Caldwell's voice boomed over the internal speakers. Alice took one last look out the window before heading for her assigned position. She knew most of the military personnel on the Daedalus, as she walked past them in the halls there were a lot of mixed reactions. Some still stopped to salute, others gave her strange looks and hesitantly walked past her. And others looked right through her as though she'd betrayed them.

She joined another group of scientists gathered together ready to be beamed down to the surface. A few of them nodded in greeting to her, some others looked like they were just barely keeping it together - they were the new recruits. The familiar feeling of lightness filled Alice, then a white light blinded her briefly. When it dissipated she could see the familiar gateroom surrounding her.

"Welcome back." A familiar voice greeted her. She blinked to clear her eyes and without thinking Alice grinned and ran forward towards the voice, enveloping Evan into a massive hug. He chuckled and lifted her briefly off the floor. "It's good to have you back Aly-cat." He pulled back keeping his hands on her shoulder and looked her up and down. "The blue suits you."

She batted his hand off her and craned her neck to look behind him. He twisted around to follow her gaze. Ronon and Teyla were just walking down the steps.

Their faces brightened when they saw her. "It's good to see you." Evan stepped away so Teyla could touch her forehead to Alice's.

"Same here, it's been tough being away so long." Alice smiled at her friend. Then looked over to Ronon.

He was grinning at her. "So does this mean I need to find a new sparring partner?" He gestured to her new jacket.

She hit playfully him on the shoulder. "Yeah right."

Rodney walked down the steps from the control room. "Ah Doctor Riley. Welcome back!" Alice could tell Rodney was trying to be nonchalant, but she could hear a bit of pride in his voice as her said her new title.

"Hi Rodney." She stepped forward to hug him. She felt him awkwardly pat her on the back.

"Um...yes. Well busy busy. I just wanted to make sure my newest team member was up to scratch."

Alice raised an eyebrow at him and pulled away from him. "Really McKay." She shook her head. For as smart as he was, he could be really emotionally dense. But then none of her team, maybe with the exception of Teyla were very good at handling emotions. "So what's been going on? Where's John?" She'd expected John to be here to meet her. Alice narrowed her eyes as Evan, Teyla, Ronon and Rodney all gave her hesitant glances.

"Right here." His voice came out of the shadows near the corridor. Teyla, Ronon and Evan exchanged a quick look and quickly made up some reason to leave. Ronon had to grab the collar of Rodney's jacket to get him to follow them.

Alice smiled shyly as John walked over to her. She studied his face, he was wearing his signature lopsided grin. But something felt off. "I thought you weren't gonna be here for a minute."

"I promised didn't I." He kept his hands in his pocket. "Shall we?"

Alice nodded, and went to pick up her bag but John beat her to it. "Thanks." She felt her heart picking up its pace as they headed towards the living quarters.

"How was the journey back?" John asked casually, her bag slung over his shoulder.

"Long." She complained. "Seriously long, but there are some new recruits that I think you'll find interesting."

They chatted the whole way to her room, about the team and the city - nothing much of consequence. Alice kept stealing glances over to him, it was silly but it felt like if she didn't have him in her sight he'd disappear. Alice clasped her hands in front of her as John waved his hands over the door crystals. Together they walked in, keeping a respectable distance between them. If anyone had been walking past it would look like he was just helping his teammate back with her luggage. But as soon as the door closed, John dropped the bag with a heavy thud on the floor and his lips were on hers.

Alice felt her cheeks heat up and her heart beating so loud she was sure John would be able to hear it. His hands pulled her jacket back off her shoulders so it joined her bag on the floor. Then they moved down her arms and onto her waist and then down to the hem of her shirt. She could feel the warmth of his hands through her shirt, to her dismay John pulled away from their feverish kisses. She opened her eyes, her breathing was hard and laboured, his hazel eyes were staring straight back into her green eyes. Ge was asking her permission to go further. She grabbed a fist full of his hair and pulled his lips back onto hers.

That was all the encouragement John needed, his hands pulled up her shirt, pulling away from her to bring it over her head and at the same time discarding his own. Alice felt her dog tags rise up and down against her body. John smiled as he looked down and lifted one of the tags with his fingers. "Weren't you supposed to give these back?"

Alice stepped closer so their bodies were flush together. His hands moved to her hips, then down under her thighs pulling her up so she could wrap her legs around his waist. She bit down onto her lip. "Well, you're supposed to return them to your CO. So, here I am."

John chuckled and kissed her, she could feel him walking her back towards the wall. A shiver ran through her as her back came in contact with the cold concrete. He touched his forehead to hers. "I'm so happy you're back Riles."

Alice was slightly taken back by the emotion in his voice. She leaned forward and kissed him sweetly on the cheek. "I couldn't wait to see you too."

———————

By the time John and Alice had gotten reacquainted, it was coming up to dinner time. Her stomach growling constantly was a bit of a mood killer and they'd set out to the mess hall.

To her delight, the rest of her team were there as well. They'd had dinner and were now catching up on everything that had happened in the last couple of months. For the first time in months she felt herself relaxing. Alice was laughing so hard she almost fell of her chair, tears were forming in the corners of her eyes. "Oh man, I wish I had been there for that." John had his arms crossed and was generally looking unimpressed. "Maybe you should grow a beard for me now?"

John just glared at her. "You try being stuck in a dome for six months."

She clamped her mouth shut and wiped the tears from her eyes. She could tell John was still a bit haunted by his experience and she couldn't blame him. Six months was a long time, not everyone could have managed to make it through that still believing they were going to be rescued.

Rodney lifted up his wrist and looked at his watch. "Well, it's getting late and we have orientations in the morning."

"Oh come on it's not that late." Alice pouted. She didn't want the evening to be over just yet.

Evan stretched, "no he's right. Without you orientation is going to be a lot harder."

Rodney's eyes brightened. "Hey that's right, you used to run the new military personnel briefings."

Alice raised an eyebrow at him. "What's your point..."

"Congratulations Doctor Riley, you've got your first assignment. You can lead the first orientation session for the new recruits, all the basics and that, it probably isn't any different to the military one anyway."

"Wait... but." Alice stood up to argue but Rodney had already scuttled off. "Tch." She crossed her arms over her chest. "He may be my CO now but I'll still punch him."

Evan chuckled. "Goodnight." He lent over and kissed her cheek. "It's good to have you back Aly-cat."

Alice grinned and waved goodbye. She lifted her hand up and stifled a yawn. Teyla and Ronon exchanged amused looks and stood up as well saying a quick goodnight and followed Evan out. This left Alice alone with John.

John dropped his feet from the chair he'd had them propped up on. "How about a quick drink at mine?"

Alice smiled, "that sounds nice."

They walked in mostly silence back to John's quarters. She could feel butterflies starting in her stomach, she wasn't sure why she was nervous they'd been together loads. But something was on John's mind and it made her anxious.

He opened the door for her and she stepped through into his familiar room. Nothing had changed since she'd left, his Johnny Cash poster still hung over his bed, and his laundry bag was overfilled.

She went over and sat down on the small sofa at the back of the room, kicking off her shoes. John went into his small fridge and grabbed out a few beers. He popped one open and handed it to her. She took the cool can in her hands, watching as the condensation ran down the inside of her wrist.

The whole time they'd been walking back and just again now, she caught John looking...it was hard to describe but very un-John like. When they'd been together earlier, something had felt off with him, but they'd both had other desires that had taken over and Alice hadn't really thought about. But now she could definitely tell something was wrong. "What happened John?" She blurted out without really thinking.

John sighed as he sat down, he took a sip of his beer and kept his eyes focused on the view out of the window behind them. "I'm sure Teyla filled you in about most of it." It was true, when Teyla and her had gone to grab more drinks earlier she'd given Alice a quick overview of what had happened to John on their last mission.

Alice nodded. "She said it was a Sanctuary built by the Ancients to help humans ascend. She said you were there for six months."

John nodded. "I got pulled through the barrier and couldn't find a way out. I'd been there a couple of days and decided to explore the area outside the cave and then I was attacked by some kind of beast, it beat me up pretty bad." He smirked.

Alice sipped her beer, listening intently as John told her about the small village and the woman, Teer, who took care of him. He said her name softly, almost wistfully. Alice felt her throat tighten.

John had stopped speaking; Alice wasn't sure if it was because there was nothing else or because he didn't want to tell her.

He turned his head and stared at her intently, she could see a deep sadness lingering in his eyes. "I thought i'd never see you again." He reached out and stroked her cheek. "After a few months, I thought you would have definitely returned by now. But there wasn't even a sign of the team trying, I started to give up." He took his hand back and rubbed the bridge of his nose, closing his eyes.

"You care about her." Alice said softly. "More than friends."

John set his beer down on the floor beside him and clasped his hands together. "She asked me to come with her, to ascend." Alice's chest began to ache. She stared down at her can, she wasn't sure she could bear to look at John's grief over another woman, who he obviously had deep feelings for.

"Do you regret not going?" Her voice was barely audible, she wasn't entirely sure she wanted to know the answer.

Alice felt the sofa move beside her. John took one of her hands into his and used the other to caress the side of her face, gently moving it so she was looking at him. "Not for a moment." His eyes were honest and intense. "I never gave up on coming back to you."

He leaned forward slowly and kissed her. Alice closed her eyes and gently responded, shifting closer so she could wrap her arms around John's neck. His hands moved to her hips, pulling her against him and twisting his body so she was now laying underneath him. Their kisses grew steadily more desperate, John raked his hands through her hair and up and down her sides. It was as though he still didn't quite believe she was actually there.

Alice dragged her hands down his back until she reached the hem of his shirt. John broke their kiss allowing her to pull it up and over his head. He tossed it onto the floor and dropped down onto his elbows, holding most of his weight off her. Gently, he brushed her hair back and his eyes roamed slowly over her face. "Please don't leave me again."

Alice giggled. "Yes sir."

—————-

Alice shuffled, smiling softly as she felt John's strong arms still wrapped around her naked waist. It was probably the best sleep she'd had in months.

"Morning." John's voice was thick with sleep. She felt his lips press against her bare shoulder, it sent tiny electric chills down her back.

"Hi there." She giggled as he kissed up her neck, tickling her slightly. "We should probably get up, I shouldn't miss my first day."

"Do we have to?"

Alice shuffled around so she was facing him. "I've got an orientation to lead remember."

John groaned. "Fine." He opened his eyes slowly and Alice pecked him on the nose.

She pushed the covers off herself and slipped out of bed. John pushed himself up slightly and stretched. "If you're quick I'll let you join me in the shower." Alice wrapped her towel around her and slowly walked over to the bathroom, making sure her hips swung out sensually. John's eyes were suddenly wide awake and hooked on her figure.

————-

Alice stood in front of a room of new expedition members, she took in a breath to steady herself. She'd done this a million times before, but she'd never felt this nervous doing it before.

"Good morning!" She called out to the group, catching their attention so the small chatter died down. "I'm Cap..." Alice paused and cleared her throat. "Doctor Riley." She wondered how long it would take before she stopping thinking of herself as a Captain. The thought saddened her a bit. But now wasn't the time to feel sorry for herself.

Alice ran through the general intro to Atlantis briefing as she had done a hundred times before. "Now, if any of you have any questions. Please direct them to our head of department, Doctor McKay, Doctor Radek or myself." Rodney had chosen the perfect time to walk in, so everyone had turned to stare at him as he took a massive bite into a Danish pastry. Radek, who had been sat in the back just crossed his arms and shook his head.

Rodney wiped the crumbs of his chin with the back of his hand and started handing out people's assignments and team leads. Alice stayed where she was until everyone else in the room had been given their assignments.

"Hey Aly." Rodney stepped over to her, Alice straightened up, slightly excited at the prospect of her own project. "I thought you might want to start by leading the Jumper project?" He tapped his tablet and finally looked up at her, another smug smile across his lips.

Alice had her hands clasped behind her. "sure thing." She smiled at him, John had recently been complaining that Rodney had been taking too long on this project, and Alice kind of understood now. The Jumpers were Alice's favourite tech in Atlantis, he must've been saving it specifically for her.

"Zalenka has been lending a hand managing it, so it would be best to check in with him on the status." Rodney paused and tapped his fingers looking around the now empty room. "He's heading off world now though so once he's back. But in the meantime I've sent you his latest reports."

"Great, thanks Rodney." She took her datapad and headed out of the lab.

New bodies were milling about everywhere, moving in the new equipment that the Daedalus had brought over. "Alice!" Laura was jogging up towards her.

Alice slowed her pace allowing for her friend to catch up. "Hey Laura! It's good to see you."

Laura nodded, "it's good to have you back." She reached out and hugged Alice. "Though I need to tell you, I'm heading out with the Daedalus back to Earth."

Alice was taken back, she couldn't believe Laura was leaving. "What?! Why?"

Laura looked giddy, "they want me to lead one of the SG teams back home."

Alice tried to smile. "That's great news! But I'm going to miss having you around."

Laura scoffed. "You'll be fine. Besides a few of us have noticed how Colonel Sheppard definitely seems to have a certain bounce in his step now you're back." She gave her a knowing look.

Alice blushed slightly. "No clue what you're talking about."

"Please, it's not against the rules now. You don't have to hide anymore." She nudged Alice's shoulder. "And besides, he's always in such a better mood when he's getting some." Alice punched her friend in the arm. Deciding to pointedly ignore that last comment. "Hey I've got to run. But how about dinner?" Laura had started backing away already.

Alice agreed and watched her friend disappear around the corner. She stood in the corridor for a moment, then pivoted and headed in the same direction.

The gateroom was busier than she'd expected. Until she saw Radek geared up with one of the marine units, she'd already forgotten that Rodney had told her he'd be heading off world. From where she was standing he didn't look happy.

"Good luck Radek." She called climbing the stairs as the gate started dialling.

Elizabeth, Ronon, John and Rodney were all gathered around the long range sensor display. Curious, Alice strolled over to join them.

"Two Wraith cruisers." Rodney highlighted two small blips on the screen.

"How far away are they?" Elizabeth's face was tense.

Rodney tapped a few keys. "A day -- maybe a day and a half. I've been tracking them for some time now, but, uh, the good news is it doesn't look like they're heading this way."

John nodded at Alice and put his hands on his hips. "Just passing through the neighbourhood?"

"Yeah, it looks that way. But I just discovered something rather curious." He touched the screen to magnify the view. When he did small little bursts of energy were radiating between the ships. "Short but intense energy bursts passing between them."

"They're firing on each other." Alice said in amazement.

Ronon grunted, but Alice could tell he sounded pleased at the news.

"That's good news." John relaxed and leaned in closer to the screen.

"Certainly is." Her body relaxed a bit. "If there's any change in course at all, let me know." She turned to look at Alice. "Welcome back. Doctor." Elizabeth smiled warmly at her. "Colonel, Doctor, a word please." She gestured towards her office.

Alice gulped, she was sure this was going to be the chewing out she'd been afraid of. John and her exchanged a quick look, John gave her a reassuring nod.

Together they followed Elizabeth across the gantry into her office. Alice could feel Rodney and a few of the other technician's eyes on them, by now Alice was sure all the veteran staff would have heard about John and her.

Alice stepped into the office first and John closed the door behind them. Elizabeth lent on the edge of her desk and waited silently for John to join Alice in front of the desk.

"First of all, I wanted to say were all very happy to have you back Alice." Elizabeth started. Alice had to stop herself from wincing as she prepared herself for what was coming. Elizabeth drew in what seemed like a painful breath. "You have both put me in a very difficult position. Not only is it unethical given your previous positions." She gave John a pointed look. "But, you could have put the mission and everyone on this base at risk." Alice hung her head, John just shifted uncomfortably. "Now, there's not much I can do about it. Alice, I respect the decision you've made to remove yourself from the military. But you have both broken my trust. Until I know that the mission and safety of this base is your top priority I will not be re-instating Alice onto SGA-1."

Alice had been expecting this. There had to be some sort of punishment, whilst being off the team would be horrible it was better than being shipped home or court martialled. "We know this has put you in a bad situation, it was the last thing we wanted to do. I can assure you the success and safety of this expedition and its members comes above everything and we hope we can prove it to you." Elizabeth nodded at Alice.

John stayed quiet, Alice nudged him in the ribs. "Uh. What she said." Alice had to stop herself from rolling her eyes.

"Very well. Let's get back to work then." Elizabeth dismissed them.

Alice let out a sigh of relief as they walked back into the control room. She ignored the curious stares they got. John smiled at her, and put his hand on her shoulder. Before he could walk off she stepped to block his path. "Actually Colonel could I grab a moment."

He smirked and crossed his arms. "Y'know you don't have to call me Colonel now."

She rolled her eyes and led the way out to the main balcony. Checking to see they were alone before speaking "That wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Though she still seems pissed. Did she say anything to you about this while I was away?"

John leaned forward onto the balcony railing. "She wasn't exactly pleased. Once I was released from the infirmary I got a massive earful. But she agreed to keep it under wraps given you were resigning from your position. And because it hasn't impacted our work...she also. Uh." He paused and scratched his head awkwardly.

Alice groaned. "What?"

"She pulled in Teyla, Ronon and Rodney to evaluate our team's relationship over the past year." He avoided looking her in the eye as he spoke.

Alice nodded thoughtfully. It honestly wasn't the worst thing in the world, I mean they would have eventually told them right? She had a quick mental image of her and John walking hand in hand and kissing freely around Atlantis. It still felt taboo though. "When people find out they're going to think I got my position because of you."

John placed his hands reassuringly on her shoulders. "Who cares?" He gently kissed her forehead.

Alice smiled up at him. "We should get back to work, John. Remember you don't have me to do your paperwork anymore."

John smirked. "Nah, but that's what Major Lorne is for." He said cheerfully.

————-

Her new lab wasn't anything massive, but it was all hers. And almost every room in Atlantis was impressive. She had just been settling in and moving things around when the internal comms activated.

"Doctor Riley report to the ZPM room immediately." A voice called over the internal speakers.

Alice stared up at the ceiling in confusion. Hardly anyone went in the ZPM room now. "Aly! Come on get a move on." Evan appeared breathless in the doorway.

Alice grabbed her datapad and ran out the door. "What's going on?" Of course she couldn't have a peaceful couple of first days back to enjoy the city. It always had to be something.

Evan explained as they jogged to the closest transporter. The trust had infiltrated Atlantis and had planted a bomb. Evan was a bit fuzzy on the details, but apparently Rodney was going to meet her at the power room.

When they arrived Rodney had already connected his tablet and was running a diagnostic. "Rodney! How can I help?"

"Plug into the main connection and prepare to disconnect the ZPM. I'm just shifting over critical systems to the naquadah generators now." Alice nodded and went straight to the main pillar. She pulled out the main connection crystal and replaced it with her datapads.

It only took her a few moments. "I'm ready when you are Rodney."

He held his finger up at her, using the other one to activate his radio. "Disconnecting ZedP.M. power" he dropped the finger he'd been holding out pressing the shut down button. "... now."

The ZPM next to Alice darkened and rose up from its panel. She pulled it the rest of the way up and placed it into a special container. "ZPM secure." Rodney let out a sigh of relief. "Rodney, what's going on?"

———-

Alice and Rodney ran, well Alice jogged whilst Rodney panted along. It didn't look like he'd been keeping up with his cardio training while she'd been gone. He'd completely caught her up on what was happening while they moved. John was apparently off searching the city for this bomb now. It was a big city though, he'd have more luck finding the needle in the haystack.

They quickly climbed the steps up to the control room. "Alice!" Alice stopped abrutly to look at who had called her name.

It was Laura. "Laura?!" Her brain seemed to be working a hundred miles faster than her mouth. "Come with us!" She'd remembered that Laura was a top of the line explosive expert.

She quickly explained what they were doing and Laura agreed to help. Rodney and Laura were now working side by side, although Rodney didn't look overly pleased.

Alice was tinkering with the internal sensors to see if there was a way they could detect any explosive materials. So far she wasn't having any luck. Elizabeth walked over towards them and tapped the comms system. "Colonel Sheppard, how's it going?"

The was only a short pause before John's familiar voice responded. "Checking the east pier power distribution centres. Still nothin'. We're headed to the west pier now."

Alice glanced up to see Elizabeth tighten her jaw. "Ronon? How about you?"

"Checking the grounding stations. Also nothing." Ronon reported in.

"We've got eight other teams out there. It's a big city -- it's gonna take a while." John sounded annoyed and frustrated

"Understood. Be advised: we got a second message relayed to us ..."

Everyone in the control froze as the familiar sound of the D.H.D dialling filled the air. The technician sat at the panel held his hands up. "Uh -- D.H.D."

"It's dialling itself." Rodney walked over to the console "That's Earth's address!"

"I thought it couldn't dial Earth without the ZPM." Elizabeth was right, it shouldn't be able to.

"Well, it can't!" Rodney shrieked in panic.

Alice stood up, the gate had just dialled the seventh symbol. "Pull the control crystal!"

Rodney jumped and grabbed for the panel, before he could the eighth symbol lit up. However, instead of an explosion the gate shut down and an error message lit up on the technicians screen. It said insufficient power.

Rodney smiled and let out a half-crazed laugh as he pointed to the message. Everyone else stayed quiet.

"Did I just hear right -- the Gate dialled by itself?" Alice had completely forgot they still had an open channel to John.

It looked like Elizabeth had to, she tried to regain her composure before speaking. "Uh, yes, it tried to dial Earth."

"Whoever planted the bomb must have devised a programme to upload itself and automatically dial the Gate as backup in case the first dialling was halted." Rodney sounded mildly impressed

"A very good thing you pulled the ZPM." Elizabeth sighed.

Alice sat back down in her chair. A slight blinking at the edge of her vision caught her attention. It was the long range senors. She turned her chair so the screen was directly in front of her.

"Rodney?" Alice barely heard Laura call out, as she enhanced the senors image.

"What?"

"The transmitter." Alice turned quickly at the tension in Laura's voice.

"Oh, no!" Rodney dived for the screen.

"What is this?" Elizabeth stepped around the console so she could stand next to Rodney.

"We just started broadcasting a distress beacon. The Gate dialled itself in order to draw our attention away from the transmitter!" Rodney explained.

"Turn it off!" John shouted over comms.

Rodney hurried over to a nearby laptop. "I am."

Alice could hear him furiously typing. She was looking back at her screen. "We've got another problem Rodney." She moved back so he could see the screen.

Alice watched Rodney's eye's fill with dread as he understood what she was showing him.

"What's going on?" John demanded.

"The two Wraith cruisers we were monitoring-- they've-they've-they've, they've picked up the beacon, they've altered their course, they're headed straight for Atlantis." Rodney stuttered over his words, Alice felt all the blood rush out of her face.

"I'm coming back." John broke the silence.

No one moved for a minute, but slowly people started pulling themselves back to their work. Or at least trying to keep themselves busy. No one wanted to think about what happened the last time the Wraith came to Atlantis. Alice knew that they were all thinking it though, because she was thinking it herself. It was a sitaution she'd hoped they'd never have to face.

Alice turned her attention back to the sensors, Rodney joined her and together they quietly worked to extrapolate all the intel they could on the ships.

"How long before they get here?" Elizabeth slowly walked over to them.

Rodney exchanged a quick glance with Alice, she knew he was asking for her confirmation. She nodded, "A day, maybe a day and a half, depending on if they need to make a hyperspace pause along the way. We'll need to cloak the city again."

Elizabeth looked at him slightly exasperated. "Uh, even cloaked, the Wraith are gonna wonder where the beacon came from."

Rodney scrunched up his face. "Well, then, we need a ruse. Umm ..." he clicked his fingers, just as John walked up the stairs still dressed in his full tac-gear. "We'll take a transmitter and dump it along with some charred rubble on a beach on the mainland, and they'll think it's jetsam that washed up when the city exploded during the siege." Alice gave him a skeptical look, but Rodney seemed very pleased with himself, like he'd completely solved the situation.

John rested his hands on the console infront of them. "Hang on, back up a second. Let me get this straight. You think our bomb guy did this?"

"I don't see who else would do it." Alice sighed.

Rodney waved his hand at her dismissavely. "Yes. It'd be easy for him to figure out that the Wraith were in the area. We've been tracking them for a while now."

John still looked skeptical. "So he gets the Gate to dial by itself in order to distract us so he can broadcast a distress beacon that'll be picked up by ..."

" ... by the Wraith, yes, I believe so." Rodney finished for him.

"OK, why?" John lent back amd raised an eyebrow at Rodney.

"Whoever it is wants to destroy the city. Maybe they think this is now the only way?" Alice gestured to the screen as she spoke.

Rodney gave her a scarcastic look. "Two cruisers. They're insignificant compared to all the hiveships that are still out there."

Before she could snap back, Elizabeth tapped on the top of the console. "Well, we don't have much time, so whatever the connection is, let's try to figure it out before the cruisers get here."

Elizabeth headed back towards her office. John lingered behind, "Riles can you co-ordin-" he stopped mid-sentance and looked confused. "Sorry" he scratched the back of his head. "Guess i'm still used to being your CO."

Alice looked between him and Rodney. "Well, there's not much I can do here at the moment. If you need someone to supervise the evacuation, I'm sure Rodney can spare me."

Before Rodney could reply, John held his hand up. "Don't worry I'll get Lorne on it."

Alice watched him head for Elizabeth's office, tapping his radio to call Evan up to manage the Athosian evacuation. "Right, Rodney what's next?" she turned to her new boss.

He continued typing on his keyboard. "Now we go back to looking for the bomb."

————

Alice watched from behind her screen as crewmember after crew member walked into the conference room to be interviewed by Elizabeth.

Her and Rodney were still searching for the bomb, John was now co-ordinating the search from the control room. But Alice found it difficult to stay focused on her task, she kept thinking about the last Wraith siege. That was the last time they'd had Ford on their team too. "That's it!" Rodney exclaimed, Alice jumped out of her thoughts as Rodney started tapping his radio to call Elizabeth over.

Flustered and not wanting to be caught out she quickly checked her screens, nothing had changed. She rolled her chair over to Rodney, the code scrolling on the computer was well over her head though. "You found the bomb?" John looked sternly at Rodney. "Where is it?"

"There isn't one, it's a series of code." Rodney was looking in astonishment at the laptop.

Elizabeth appeared before them. "What have you found?"

John crossed his arms. "Guess what? Turns out there's no bomb after all."

Rodney lifted up his finger to correct John. "Uhhhh, there's no actual explosive device. The explosion will come, but, uh, from somewhere else. Now, with the Wraith on the way, we'll need to cloak the city, right?"

Alice listened closely to Rodney's explaination of the problem, smiling as John kept interrupting with his analogies. "Alice, I need you start on the decryption process, we need to find anything that will give us a key to cracking it."

"On it." She nodded and swung her chair back to her laptop. Rodney transfered the link to the code and she began her analysis.

Alice kept her head down on focused on the problem, tuning out the chatter of the others around her. Rodney had gone to report into Elizabeth, leaving her and Laura to work on finding the failsafe codes.

"What if the solution isn't in the code?" Laura waved her hand infront of Alice's face.

Alice bit her lip. "Honestly, i'm a bit over my head here. If you have a hunch about something check it out, but if it starts to lead you down a rabbit hole then stop. I need as much help finding these codes as we've got."

Laura gave her a small reassuring smile and resumed typing.

Rodney jogged back over from his meeting. "What are you doing?"

Reactively Alice looked up, thinking he was talking to her. But instead he was looming over Laura's laptop. Laura shifted so Rodney could see her screen fully. "I was going over the systems command logs for the past few months."

"Why?" Rodney crossed his arms.

"She had a hunch Rodney. I said it was okay." Alice jumped in, not impressed with his interogative question.

Laura shot a thankful glance at her, then pointed to the screen. "I noticed a gap in one of the data stream sequences from several weeks ago." Rodney took in a deep breath looking at her exasperated. "It's probably nothing but I thought it might indicate a ..."

"...a deletion point, yes. Believe it or not, I have had some experience with these systems; more, say, than a tap-dancing explosives expert." Rodney interrupted.

"I was just trying to help, Rodney." Laura muttured.

Rodney stepped back and pointed to Alice. "Hey, here's a thought: failsafe code. Why don't you help with that?"

Alice had to bite her tongue to stop herself from saying something she'd probably regret. They had bigger problems right now.

"I'll go prepare to reconnect the ZPM." She grabbed her tablet from the side and stood up pushing past Rodney.

————

Everything had happened so quickly. Alice had stayed down in the power room incase she had to manually disconnect the ZPM to prevent the overload not that it was likely. But she couldn't stand being around Rodney anymore.

She did however keep an open comms channel to the control room. A few minutes ago, the stardrive had begun powering up and as if the fates hated them the Wraith had arrived at the same time. They had about 20 minutes before the drive would kick in and their position would be given away when the cloak collapsed.

There wasn't much she could do from down here, she couldn't pull the ZPM as they still needed the cloak. She was running through the ZPM systems trying to find a way of manually shutting down the star drive.

"20 minutes!" Laura called into the comms system.

Alice swore and kept scrolling. The process was going a lot slower than she'd like as this part of the system was still in Ancient, since she was afraid of missing something she had to make sure she read each line carefully.

"It's Caldwell. They've just taken him into the conference room." Laura whispered into the mic.

Alice blinked, Caldwell was the spy... She wouldn't have guessed in a million years it was him. But this didn't help her search through the code, and time was very quickly running out. She slammed her hand down on the control panel. They couldn't lose Atlantis, her home, just as she's come back. "Laura there's nothing here, if they don't get the code that's it."

She felt like throwing her tablet against the wall. Everything rested on them getting the access code.

Alice wracked her brain trying to think of anything that might be able to help. Whether there was a way of containing the blast some how. "We've got it!" She let out a small cry of relief as she heard John shout through the comms system. She could almost picture him running over from the conference room.

"Alice-" Rodney was there too now.

"I'm ready Rodney." She accessed the code and plugged it into the control panel. She watched, her fingers figeting as Rodney entered the code. A green tick appeared and the window opened returning systems control over to her.

"Alice!" Rodney said urgently.

She typed furiously and entered shut down the Stardrive "It's done." She grinned, she could hear an array of celebratory shouts coming from the control room.

"It's over. Well done." Elizabeth congratulated them.


	20. Chapter 20

**A/N sorry this chapter is so late!! I've been travelling the last few weeks, but the good news is i've used all my free time at airports and such writing up to Chapter 26. So should be able to upload much quicker now.**

 **Please excuse any weird formatting or font issues as this was written and uploaded from my phone.**

 **Hope you enjoy the chapter!**

It was weird settling back into life in Atlantis. Although on the surface, everything was the same as before, but for Alice everything seemed different.

Before, when she wasn't offworld, she spent her time attending security briefings, training the junior military personnel and doing John's personnel reports for her team - Evan and her had decided to do these themselves, if they had left John to do them everyone just ended up with 'excellent' reviews, and Elizabeth didn't really appreciate that.

However, now, her days were filled with daily project briefings, hours of research and what Rodney liked to call discovery time. It had been a rough settling into a whole new routine and way of life. Not to mention, she was still suspended from off-world missions. So, she just had to sit back and watch her team go offworld without her. To top it all off she barely saw John much anymore either, they really only saw eachother in the mornings or if they managed meet up at night, and that was only if she wasn't stuck in the lab trying to meet one of Rodney's ridiculous deadlines or John was offworld.

Really, she hadn't seen John much the last few days. Only catching a few fleeting moments together in the hallway, which were anything but satisfying. This morning, John and the team were off on another exploratory mission to a new address, whilst Alice was decked out in a mechanical jumpsuit pulling crystals from the main engine of Jumper 8.

Alice's radio crackled. "Jumper bay this is control, Colonel Sheppard's team are inbound. Please clear the hatch area."

Alice sighed and pulled herself out from under the cockpit controls. "You heard the man, clear a path guys!" She saw a few of her team scramble around grabbing their equipment that was in the way of the doors and retreat off to the side.

Alice grabbed her water bottle and stood at the back of the jumper, leaning on the doorframe so she could watched the Jumper rise up from the gateroom. They were back a lot sooner than she'd expect, it meant they must've found something. She tried not to get too excited though, most likely she wouldn't be involved anyways.

John landed the jumper flawlessly, the ground barely vibrated as he touched down. She couldn't help but smile, he was by far the best pilot they had in Atlantis and the most compatible with Ancient tech it might have been the science geek in her but it was incredibly sexy. But then who wouldn't be turned on by an intergalactic flyboy.

Noticing her, John lifted up a hand in a small wave from behind the cockpit glass at her. She held her own hand up in greeting. "Let's call it lunch guys, we'll pick it up this afternoon." Alice heard excited chatter explode from behind her and footsteps quickly heading out towards the mess hall.

She smiled and slowly walked over to John's jumper. She stopped when she saw the cargo bay filled with a giant pod. "What's this?" She peered from side to side, looking at the design and expectantly up at Rodney. She knew her face must've been lit up with intrigue, cause John was giving her a knowing smirk.

"I don't know." Rodney said lamely. Alice's face dropped into a frown. "What? Well, I'll know more when i get it into the lab."

"Uh huh, well if you need any help." Alice held her hands behind her back, trying to sound nonchalant. Teyla and Ronon were starting to manoeuvre the pod out of the back.

Rodney clicked his finger and pointed at her. "Actually yes, you can get this to Lab 3 and start an external examination. That means I can get lunch, it's the turkey special." Rodney looked very pleased with himself, shutting the lid of his laptop and shuffling past Ronon, who glared down at him, and out of the hanger.

John stood in the doorway of the cockpit, he was pressing his fingers on his temple. "That man." Ronon and Teyla both looked equally annoyed as John.

Alice shrugged. "His loss." Her eyes sparkled as she looked at the alien pod. "Now let me grab a trolley or something."

Ronon, Teyla and John had very kindly offered to help her move the pod, given it weighed about two tons and there was no way in hell she would have been able to do it by herself.

Teyla and Ronon had given John and her a cheeky grin and abruptly excused themselves to get food. This just left John and Alice alone in the lab. John awkwardly shuffled around the pod, pretending to examine the outer markings and equipment in the lab.

"You can go get some food, this could take a whole." Alice was starting her inspection, looking for any writing of controls that might be of use to them.

"I'm okay." She could heard the slight smile in his voice. "Besides, I've hardly seen you. I was thinking tonight maybe-"

Alice stopped what she was doing and looked up at him. She couldn't help but grin, he was never usually this coy. "How about dinner at yours, and we skip the food?" She pursed her lips to stop herself from giggling at his sudden alert expression. "Now go, I can hear your stomach from here, and it is turkey today."

She could see John faulter slightly, "alright, but let me know if you find something." He started towards the door. "And since we're not going to be eating tonight, do you want me to bring you any food?" He said suggestively.

This caught Alice's attention. "Yes, please. Could you grab me one of the chicken wraps, oh and a can of lemonade or something." She smiled sweetly at John.

"Sure thing." He winked at her and headed out the door.

She laughed to herself and shook her head, re-focusing herself onto the pod infront of her.

It hadn't been long since John left when Alice tapped her radio, "hey Carson, are you busy at the moment?"

"No my dear, what can i do for you?"

"I need you to come to Lab 3, and bring your med scanner." Alice was looking at the readouts from the pod on her laptop. She was no doctor but they looked very similar to a brain EEG scan. Working here and at the SGC she'd seen more than her fair share of them.

It didn't take Carson long to come down, and Rodney walked in just a few seconds later, he still had a sandwich in his hands. "So, what's so important?" He said with his mouth full.

"Your first thought was spot on. It's definitely a stasis pod." Alice said enthusiastically stepping back to show her screen to Carson and Rodney.

Carson's jaw dropped as he looked at her screen and immediately began taking his own readings. Rodney stopped chewing and grabbed his own to plug into the pod. Alice continued her own analysis with a slightly smug smile as Rodney sat down on the floor to connect his tablet.

John strolled in not long after with a small tray of food. Alice mouthed thank you as he placed it down next to her. John smiled in response and began wandering around the pod looking at it while Alice explained what they'd found so far.

They were only at it for a few more moments when both, Elizabeth and Caldwell entered the lab.

"Doctor Weir." Carson was the first one to notice the two senior officers. "Oh! Colonel Caldwell! Welcome back!"

On instinct Alice straightened her posture, thankfully she didn't go for a full salute this time. Since their last conversation on the Daedalus and with him being host to a Goa'uld, she found him intimidating and had avoided being in a room alone with him.

Caldwell cleared his throat uncomfortably, obviously not wanting to think about the last time he was here. "Thank you, Doctor." He then turned to John with a more serious expression. "Colonel. What've we got?"

John looked at Alice quickly, before replying. "We think it's a life pod of some kind." He tried to make it sound like he knew a lot about what it was, and hadn't just come in himself a couple of minutes before.

Carson came to John's rescue. "It appears to be designed solely for the purposes of maintaining a single human life in stasis. This one's a female."

"There's another one in a decaying orbit but, uh, we could only fit one inside the Jumper." John reported quickly.

"I've already sent Lorne in Jumper Six to recover the second pod. Ronon and Teyla went along to help them locate it." Elizabeth added.

Rodney jumped up suddenly from the floor startling Alice slightly. "OK! I'm ready to crack her open." Alice rolled her eyes, typical Rodney, completely oblivious to everything that had been going on around him. He was stood staring blankly at Caldwell. "Hey."

Caldwell smiled at him. It wasn't exactly a friendly smile but it was probably as close as you'd get with him. "Hello, Doctor."

Rodney stared at him for a moment longer. Inconspicuously Alice nudged his arm, trying to knock some sense into him. "Hmm." Quickly he darted his gaze back to his laptop and hit a button. Everyone stepped back slightly as the lid of the pod began to slide open.

Keeping her distance, Alice had to rise onto her tiptoes to look inside. From what she could see it looked like a very old woman in a military style green uniform. Alice wondered how many more times they'd be thawing out an old woman from stasis.

"She's alive -- barely. It appears we found her very near the end. All the major organs are shutting down."

Alice checked her readings, "her brain activity is erratic. If we don't do something we're going to lose her."

"How long was she out there?" Elizabeth asked.

Carson sighed, continuing his scans. "There's no way to tell for certain."

"So, she could be an Ancient?" Elizabeth voice had an excited lilt to it.

"Uh, the pod design makes me doubt that." Rodney pointed to the main controls. They were remarkably different to any Ancient tech they'd ever come across.

"It's a shame she can't speak with us." Elizabeth stepped closer to the pod. "Just imagine what she could tell us about her people and about what happened to her."

Alice was too busy looking out her monitor, trying to find a command to revive or stabilise the woman.

"Elizabeth!" Rodney shouted next to her.

The next thing she knew, John and Caldwell were lowering an unconscious Elizabeth onto the floor. "What happened?!" She tore her fingers off her keyboard, hoping it wasn't anything she did.

"Medical team to Lab Three, stat!" Carson rushed over to Elizabeth. John and Caldwell quickly stepped back to give him some space.

Alice continued to watch in a stunned silence as the medics arrived and quickly shifted Elizabeth onto the gurney and out towards the infirmary.

Caldwell and John followed only two steps behind them, both of them looking equally alarmed. Alice turned to Rodney who was looking back down at the pod in shock. "Please tell me it wasn't something i did."

Rodney tapped a few keys. "No, it wasn't it was a failsafe." He said slightly distracted. She let out a sigh of relief, but her heart continued to race. Whatever was happening it couldn't be good.

———-

Alice and John stood in a slightly secluded hallway just around the corner from lab three. Alice had her back against the wall and her arms crossed infront of her chest. "No one should be doing this. And if someone has to, then why does it have to be you?" Alice was trying to keep her voice down.

John was shaking his head slightly. "You think i'm going to let someone else do it? Beside's it's only temporary." Alice opened her mouth to argue, but John kept going this time though his tone was softer. "Imagine it was us." He reached out and stroked a stray piece of hair away from her face. "I would give anything to be able to say a proper goodbye, to have just one last moment with you."

Alice dropped her gaze to her feet, feeling her cheeks blush red. "I would want the same. Okay." she sighed giving in. "But i still don't like it." She added stubbornly.

John lifted up her chin with his index finger then brought his hand around to caress her cheek. "It'll be fine." He gave her a quick kiss on the forehead. "I'll be me before you know it."

They walked into the room together, Alice didn't miss Caldwell's directed stare at them. She almost wanted to dare him to say anything, but he quickly diverted his gaze back to the pod. The second pod had been placed where the first one had been

Rodney was once again under the pod, plugging in his laptop. "As I understand it" he grunted as he stood back up. "The beam that hit Elizabeth was part of a failsafe feature built into the pod system. As cellular failure progressed, the pod stored her consciousness in a sort of, uh, flash memory." He flicked his hands as he spoke.

"Why? I mean, what good is the technology if the effects are temporary?" Caldwell crossed his arms over his chest, glaring at the pod suspiciously. It looked like he didn't approve of this plan either. At least that was one thing she could agree with the Colonel on.

"It's a Black Box!" John said smartly.

Rodney looked at John, his expression told Alice he was annoyed he hadn't thought of that first. "Well, that makes sense. Even if the body is incapable of being revived, the survivor can still report what happened to their ship. The rescue team could interrogate them even if they were incapable of regaining consciousness."

"You're talking about a human flight recorder. That's pretty dark." Caldwell, Alice noticed, was keeping a rather safe distance between him and the top of the pod.

John just shrugged. "Pretty useful thing in times of war."

"As much as i hate to admit it, it does sound like it could have its uses." Alice admitted reluctantly.

Rodney grinned. He was enjoying this a bit too much. "Well, it could also be the means for two survivors to say one last goodbye, hmm?"

John shuffled uncomfortably and shot a look at Alice. Carson wheeled Elizabeth, or Phebus as Alice had been told was the woman's name whose consciousness now inhabited Elizabeth, into the lab in a wheelchair. She stared intently at the pod.

"We must be nuts." Alice whispered under her breath. She moved over to her laptop and double checked the systems making sure all the readings matched the ones of the last pod.

"Are you sure she's up for this?" Alice watched Caldwell stare at Elizabeth suspiciously. In response, Elizabeth lifted herself up and stepped closer to the pod. Tenderly she laid her hand over where the inhabitants head would be.

Carson moved to stand beside Caldwell. "Physically, she's perfectly fine. Besides, Elizabeth wouldn't take no for an answer."

Elizabeth lifted her head her expression filled with awe. "Ah, love is a powerful thing, Carson."

"You're a hopeless romantic, you know that?" John smirked.

Elizabeth smiled back. "Well, you're just as hopeless, otherwise you wouldn't have agreed." Alice snorted slightly, Elizabeth was spot on. She quickly cleared her throat trying to disguise the noise. Though both Carson and Elizabeth looked at her knowingly.

Alice and Rodney prepped the pod. "Alright we're ready." They said finally.

Caldwell stepped towards John. "I'd prefer if this alien consciousness weren't armed."

"Right." He took his pistol out of its holster and held it out to Rodney.

"Oh!" Rodney took it reluctantly and immediately shoved it straight into Alice's hands. She rolled her eyes and slipped it into the belt of her pants. After all this time you'd think he'd be used to guns.

John was staring hestitantly down at the old man in the pod. "Colonel Sheppard. You'll have to be in close proximity to the pod for the transfer to happen." Carson prodded gently.

"Yeah, yeah, I know." He said nervously, but he didn't move.

"But you're not moving." Carson urged.

John stepped back slightly, looking at Carson and Alice. "You know, they were husband and wife. Anything could happen." Alice nodded at him slightly, reassuring him that it was okay.

"I promise to be discreet, Colonel." Elizabeth, or more likely this time it was Phebus, said.

John shuffled foreward slowly. "Well, um, I guess I'll see you guys later."

"See you on the other side." Alice waved slightly, her eyes watching him carefully.

"Have fun!" Rodney was hovering over his laptop again.

A white beam shot out and encapsulated John. Alice had to shield her eyes from the brightness. As it dissipated, John was swaying slightly, his eyes closed. Carson started to move towards him but Elizabeth held out her hand to stop him. "Give him a moment."

John stood with his head lowered for a moment longer, then his eyes opened and his head snapped up. He stared directly at Alice, it caused a shiver up her spine, she knew John well enough to know that wasn't him looking at. Though there was a certain level of recognition in his eyes.

"Thalen?" Elizabeth said softly. "It's me."

He tilted his head slightly to look at Elizabeth. "Phebus?" Even the tone of his voice was different.

She stepped slightly closer with her hands raised. "It's alright -- these people recovered our pods."

Carson waved at John nervously.

"We may well be the very last of our kind. These generous people have allowed us to be together one last time." Elizabeth started walking slowly towards him.

John looks round at Caldwell. "You consented to this?"

"One last chance ..." she was close enough to touch him "... to say goodbye to my husband." She lunged forward, Alice reached for her gun, but instead of attacking she seized his head in her hands and kissed him deeply.

Alice quickly dropped her hand from her gun, her throat tightened and all the muscles in her body constricted. She had to quickly remind herself that this wasn't her John right now. She had to look away though, it wasn't something she could watch.

"It's not what I expected." Alice looked back up as she heard John's voice.

Elizabeth still had her hands on John's face. "I know this body is different but I assure you, Thalen, it's me." She turned her head slightly but kept her eyes on John's. "Is it possible for us to be alone, just for a few minutes?"

"No" Alice and Caldwell said immediately.

"Absolutely not." Caldwell added.

Carson scoffed. "Oh, don't be so heartless!"

Rodney waved at the two of them staring deeply at each other. "They are two consenting adults!" Alice felt a strong urge to punch Rodney in the back of the head.

"That's not what I'm concerned about, Doctor." Caldwell replied.

"The Colonel's right." John gaze was still locked on Elizabeth's face. Alice felt a slight ache in her, she hated seeing him stare at someone else the way he normally looked at her.

"Doctor Weir is in charge of this facility." Elizabeth/Phebus explained.

"I'm just saying, there should be an armed guard just outside the door." John gestured towards the door.

"Two guards -- one in each door." Elizabeth quickly said after him.

"I've already taken that precaution. They're right outside." Alice felt a cold chill run through her, her gut was telling her something was off and it wasn't just about seeing John kiss another woman. As much as she didn't want to see it, they should be cooing and kissing each other, not worrying about the guards.

"Of course they are." A ghost of a smile brushed over Elizabeth's lips.

John returned the smile. Before Alice could blink they both rapidly spun around and raced for one door each.

"Hey!" Rodney called out startled.

Alice ripped her gun out of her belt as John raced out of one door and knocked the guard to the floor while grabbing the Wraith hand stunner that he is holding. Elizabeth punches the other guard and grabs his hand stunner. John was back in the room in seconds, firing his stunner towards the other door. Alice pushed Rodney down onto the floor.

"Security to Lab Three!" Alice heard Cauldwell trying to radio for help but John dropped him with a stun blast.

"John!" Alice raised her gun at him, trying to keep it aimed on his extremities. She kept Elizabeth in her peripheral vision. They were quick and well-trained though, she'd watched them take out the guards easily. She didn't really stand a chance against both of them. Alice was also at the disadvantage that she wouldn't be shooting to kill, but these people probably wouldn't hesitate. John was glaring at her with his unfamiliar eyes, Alice fired a warning shot.

"Alice, don't shoot! That's Colonel Sheppard!" This broke her concentration and John hit her square in the chest with his stunner.

* * *

Alice groaned, her chest felt cold and numb as she slowly opened her eyes. She was lying face down on the ground. With some difficulty she forced her hand up near her head to push herself up from the floor. Alice blinked taking in her surroundings. John and Elizabeth were long gone, Rodney and Carson were both sprawled unconscious on the floor. Caldwell was starting to move though.

"We have a medical emergency in Lab Three." Alice heard Teyla's voice, but she couldn't see her.

"Hey, hey slowly." Alice felt a warm hand on her shoulder, she flinched but Ronon's face appeared in her vision and she relaxed. Seeing she was awake now, he quickly leaned over and checked Rodney's pulse. "You okay?"

"Yeah fine." Alice grumbled, getting to her feet. She could see Teyla now, beside Caldwell.

"What happened?" Ronon looked around them.

"She was playing us from the beginning." Caldwell explained.

"Weir?"

Alice nodded, "John's compromised now too, he's the one who shot me." Alice winced as she stretched her chest, trying to get rid of the numbness.

"Control Room: patch my radio through to security teams only." Caldwell tapped his radio. Ronon stepped over to Carson, who was slowly waking up and trying to pull himself into a sitting position. "This is Caldwell. Both Doctor Weir and Colonel Sheppard are under the influence of alien entities. If at all possible, subdue and contain them with non-lethal force."

"We can track them down faster." Ronon stood up.

Teyla nodded in agreement. "There is a medical team on its way."

"I'm going with you. I know this city better than John." Alice fixed Caldwell with a strong glare, she wasn't asking for his permission.

Caldwell nodded at them. "Go."

Alice, Ronon and Teyla ran straight for the armoury. "Stunners only, but take a back up. Just in case." She murmured somberly. John was dangerous normally, but she had no idea what he could be capable of now.

"Stick together, I'll meet up with a security team. Stay in contact." Ronon and Teyla nodded and headed out.

Alice tapped her radio. "Rodney, where's the closest security team."

————

Alice cleared her corner and gestured with two fingers to the team behind her. The team lead was new to Atlantis and had initally been put out of place to be taking orders from a scientist. That was until one of the marines whispered in his ear. Since then he'd been extremely accomodating. It was a smart move, the only people who knew the city better than Elizabeth and John was her and Ronon. They'd explored a lot of the outer rooms and inner areas during their military and training exercises that were normally off-limits to personnel.

"Colonel Caldwell." Alice held up a fist and slowly drew it down to the floor. She recognised Lloyd's voice.

"Go ahead."

"Sheppard just took us out and took our P90s. We're in section S14." Lloyd sounded slightly ashamed, but it wasn't like they were up against a rookie.

"We're on our way." She informed control. "This way." Alice whispered heading towards Lloyd's position. She had an idea of where John might be heading, but she had no idea how Thalen thought.

It didnt take long for her suspicions to be confirmed, they turned the corner and John was standing right in front of them. "Shit!" A hail of bullets shot past them, Alice dived for the floor and fired off a few shots. Unsurprisingly they missed. She heard more stunner shots whiz past her and two loud thuds as her team dropped to the floor.

John ran into the room he was standing by, Alice, now alone, jumped up to follow him. It was the power room. She'd thought this would be John's first port of call. "Stop!" She shouted just as John fired at the main console sending sparks everywhere. Rodney was going to be pissed, she though moments before the room plunged into darkness.

The equipment all died and Alice was left with only the sound of her own breathing. It should only take a few moments before the emergency lighting kicked in. Alice raised her gun to her chest and tried to stay as silent as possible, levelling her breathing. "Got you." John's voice made her jump as his hand closed around her throat. The emergency lighting turned on and she could finally see John's deadly expression.

She gasped for breath and her gun clattered to the floor. Her hands flew up to John's hands trying to break his grip on her throat. "Isn't that nice, he's trying to bargain for your life." His grip tightened. "He's begging me not to end you." Alice started panicking and trying to hit anything she could to break his grip but her attacks were getting weaker and weaker. Dots started appearing in the edges of her vision, a few more seconds and it would all be over.

She felt tears pricking in the corner of her eye. "John. please." She managed to gasp.

She was sure this was going to be it, she was going to die at the hand of the man she'd given up everything for. Her lungs burned for oxygen and her hands dropped limply to her sides. Just as she felt herself starting to lose consciousness the pressure disappeared and she fell to the floor.

She spluttered, coughed and gasped trying to fill her lungs with oxygen. Each breath caused excruciating pain. Her eyes searched the darkness for any sign of John. But he was already gone.

She tried to activate her radio but the power cut must've deactivated internal comms. Alice laid her head back down onto the ground, Rodney would have the back-up power on in a minute, but she needed to recover herself. Her chest ached still as she tried to take long and deep breaths.

Alice wasn't sure if she lost consciousness, but the next thing she knew Carson was crouched over her saying her name. "Carson?" she croaked.

"Oh thank goodness." Carson let out a relieved sigh.

Alice coughed and dragged herself up, her head was swimming. She saw Rodney standing by the control panel. "It was John."

Rodney was scowling at the damaged crystals. "Of course it was."

Ignoring Carson's protest, Alice struggled up to her feet. "I need to find him." Her voice was coarse and whispery. Her throat still felt a tender and swollen.

"Don't be ridiculous. You're not going anywhere except the infirmary." Carson chastised her. He placed his hands on her throat, she flinched back as pain shot down her spine.

She tried to keep her expression neutral, but she knew Carson had felt her flinch back. "I'm fine Carson." She lied as she grabbed her weapons from the floor and re-holstered them. "I'll need this too." Her voice was barely louder than a whisper, but she grabbed one of the radios from the guards.

"Like hell you are." Carson stepped in front of her. "He almost killed you, a couple more seconds and he would have."

Alice winced as she tried to swallow, "but he didn't, and he wouldn't. Sorry Carson, i need to be out there."

Before Carson could protest anymore, she'd stepped around him and moved out the door.

She moved as quickly as she could, but her throat made it difficult to breathe which slowed her down. She listened as Teyla radioed in Elizabeth's position at the base of the central tower. Alice wasn't too far away, pressing herself against the wall she stopped to catch her breath.

Shots fired ahead of her. Alice pushed herself off the wall and ran down the corridor towards the noise. "Will you people stop getting in the way?!" she heard John yell out angrily. Alice pushed herself to move faster, when she came into the clearing she saw Teyla lying motionless on the floor. She skidded down to her and placed two fingers on her neck. She was relieved to feel the drumming of her pulse, luckily she'd just been stunned. More gunfire sounded, Alice radioed in Teyla's position and picked up her pace to catch up to John and Elizabeth.

Elizabeth had barricaded herself into one of the labs, and John had run off upstairs. She only had a split second to choose one of them to follow, and John was closer.

She'd just passed one of the bulkhead doors when the City's lockdown alarm sounded and the doors around her started sealing themselves.

"Rodney! what's going on?" Alice called hoarsely into her radio.

"Elizabeth has locked us out of all controls and initiated a full lockdown." Rodney sounded like he was grinding his teeth.

Alice swore, she looked behind her. The bulkhead separated her from Elizabeth's section. "I'm stuck outside where Elizabeth was, but John should be trapped in this section too."

"Be careful Aly." Alice smiled at Rodney's concern, she turned the volume down on her radio and raised her gun and began to sweep the area. She stopped as her radio activated a few moments later, it sounded like Rodney had finally managed to reactivate the internal comms.

"Caldwell. Can you hear me?" Alice froze as Elizabeth's voice sounded through the speakers. Looks like it wasn't Rodney who had reactivated the comms.

"Go ahead." Caldwell's responded in his best cold military tone.

"By now you're aware the city is entirely under my control, and there are several bulkhead doors between me and your nearest search teams. You can't possibly get to me."

"Yes, we're well aware." he growled.

"I'm sure Doctor McKay believes he can override my command code -- and it's possible in a matter of several hours he could, but I don't have that kind of time." Alice had never heard Elizabeth's voice sound so threatening.

"We'd be more than happy to wait this out."

"Now who knows what kind of trouble I could cause with life support while I wait? Or maybe I'll just send a signal to the Wraith, like you did." Alice bit down on her lip, with access to Elizabeth's knowledge anything would be possible. Caldwell would probably have Rodney telling him the same thing.

"What do you want?"

"I want Sheppard." She said it like it was the simplest request she could ask for.

"Well, I'm sorry I can't help you with that. Is there something else I can do for you?"

"Don't screw with me, Caldwell. At the very least, I can kill Weir." There was a long pause. "When you get him, contact me."

Alice closed her eyes, she knew what was about to happen.

"Riley, this is Caldwell." The Colonel's voice was somber

She swallowed painfully. "I heard Colonel. Any clue where he is?"

"He's one floor up."

Alice stood up and started moving again. "I'll let you know when I've got him." She croaked, she wasn't sure if that was because of her throat or...

She moved quietly up the stairs, John was yelling up ahead in frustration. She crept forward, so he was in her sights. He was breathing rapidly in fury, his gun was lifted. Alice was trying to see who else was there when he started firing at the bulkhead in an attempt to open it. The door jerked open slightly, John threw his gun aside and tried to pry the doors open so he could squeeze through.

Alice decided now was the the best moment for her to move. "Sorry John." She ran forward and fired her stunner. John slumped, wedging himself in the doorway. Holstering her stunner she grabbed his jacket and heaved him back through towards her and let him fall unceremoniously to the floor. She tapped her earpiece. "I got him."

"Good work. Secure him and stand by for further instructions." Caldwell ordered.

Alice pulled out a set of zip ties from her vest and started tying John's hands together. She had a bad feeling about this. Elizabeth and Caldwell were arguing over the intercom, and Elizabeth was threatening the lives of everyone on Atlantis. Despite what she had always thought about Caldwell, she could tell he was doing his best to protect John, Elizabeth and everyone else in Atlantis. But if it came down to a choice between John and everyone else.

Alice felt like her heart stopped. "We have him." Caldwell finally admitted in defeat.

"I thought you might." Alice could hear the smugness in her voice. "There's a new security camera on the northern-most stairwell of that part of the tower. I want him taken there so that I can see him -- kicking and screaming, if possible."

Alice took in a deep breath, she tried not to think about what was about to happen.

"Riley, we've been requested to put the Colonel in front of the nearest security camera."

Alice glanced down at John's peaceful face. It was her John's face again not Thalen's. Could she really do this? This was exactly what Elizabeth had meant about their relationship compromising the mission.

Trying to control her emotions, Alice grabbed the back of John's jacket and began manoeuvring him into the view of the security camera.

"I'm not surprised that you're the only one that managed to get to him." Alice scowled at Elizabeth's - no, Phebus' - taunt.

"What now?" she spat at the camera, though it wasn't very threatening when it came out as a hoarse whisper.

"We're just gonna wait until he regains consciousness."

Alice ran her fingers over her throat, it definitely was going to leave a nasty bruise. Alice paced up and down in front of the camera, highly aware that Elizabeth would be watching her every move. A low groan sounded from John, she looked up at the camera. "He's coming around."

John rolled onto his side and tried to prop himself up on one elbow. "Riles?" he looked around until his eyes rested on her. She tilted her head and narrowed her eyes at him. " -- it's me."

She examined him closer, keeping her distance. "No…" She saw the same glint in his eye that he had as he strangled her. "it's not you." She tried to keep the fear out of her voice.

"Don't you see what they're doing?" he thrashed about in his restraints. "They're pitting us against each other. You know me!" He shouted accusingly at her.

"Oh, please! You call that acting?!" Elizabeth scoffed.

John sat bolt upright and stared up at the camera. "Phebus!"

"There's that look of defeat I love."

"Wrong again. Still hatred." John hissed with pure hatred.

"I guess I'm satisfied with this. Now Riley?"

Alice shifted her body so she was looking at the camera but could still see John out of the corner of her eye. "What do you want?"

"Kill him." Alice's breath caught in her throat, she suddenly felt disorientated.

Her eyes darted down to John. "Don't listen to her."

"Kill him now, or I vent halon fire suppressant into all the living spaces in Atlantis." Alice felt all the blood drain out of her face. She hand slowly twitched and pulled out her gun.

"Colonel" Alice whispered. "— can… can she do it?"

"I believe so."

"How many?" her voice was barely audible, and not because of her throat.

"Three-quarters of the expedition." An involuntary gasp escaped her mouth.

"Why are you doing this? What good will killing him do?" She attempted to scream at the camera.

"I have spent my entire life at war with his world. Thousands have died with no hope for victory, both sides reduced to a mere handful of fighters. If he really is the last, then in the end my people will have won."

She slowly raised her gun. "Don't believe her." John pleaded.

"Believe me when I say I have absolutely nothing to lose. In a very short time, I will feel excruciating pain, this body will convulse, and I will cease to exist. That's what is ahead for me. All I can hope for now is to achieve victory for my people."

"Your people are gone. They're all dead. Who gives a f* if you won or lost." She could no longer control her hands; they were shaking so bad she wasn't sure she'd be able to keep hold of the gun.

"It matters to me."

"If you kill me, you're killing him. He loves you, he's screaming it in my head right now." John's eyes were wide.

The words froze Alice to her core. Her eyes started filling with tears. "He'll understand." Her voice caught as she said it, hoping the words were true.

"You don't have to do this." John raised his bound hands to her.

"Shoot him, or I release the gas and just hope it reaches the both of you."

"She has the capability of doing what she claims. Alice ... I'm not gonna tell you what to do." Caldwell said gently.

"I am. Kill him."

Even though her hands were shaking she knew she could make the shot. John smirked. "Sheppard doesn't believe you'll do it… Riles." He said her nickname as a taunt.

It had the opposite effect though. She took in a deep breath and hardened her face, she'd decided. "I'm sorry John." She started squeezing the trigger.

"Alice! this is Caldwell. Do not fire! I repeat, do not fire!"

Alice almost dropped her gun in shock. "What?!"

"Rodney's locked her out!"

Alice let out a sharp bark of laughter and dropped to her knees. "Rodney, I will never complain about you ever again."

"You complained about me?" She heard Rodney ask in the background.

"It looks like she's headed your way" Caldwell said.

"Of course she is." Alice murmured breathlessly. She forced herself back onto her feet, she still hadn't brought herself to look at John. She looked left and right, the door John tried to open before was still ajar. She moved to peek through it.

"Riles! You have to let me out, she'll kill me."

"Don't call me that!" she hissed. "and I'm not gonna let her do anything to you."

"You don't know how determined she is." he grunted in pain. "You can't let her win." He grunted again, then started to groan in pain and toppled over.

Alice watched in alarm. "He's having a seizure!" she shouted into the radio.

"Do not release him, no matter what happens!"

"I wasn't planning on it." She muttered. It was hard to watch, but after a moment, his convulsions stop and he stopped moving. Alice hesitated, she wasn't sure if this was another trick but she was worried when she couldn't tell if his chest was moving. She shuffled closer, crouching down and stretching out her hand to feel his pulse.

"Riles?" John croaked. Alice snapped her hand back to her chest.

"Which one are you?" She asked cautiously.

"You're never gonna believe me, so ..." he turned his head away from her. "... I'm not even gonna try."

"Stand away from him and up against the wall."

Alice lifted her head and pursed her lips. She couldn't believe she'd let Elizabeth sneak up on her. She thought quickly, there was no way she'd be able to shoot her before she got shot herself and she doubted Pheobus would miss. She only had one play left. "He's still out of it."

"I don't know how many bullets I have left in this thing, or I would have already shot you!" Elizabeth sneered.

Alice quickly slipped John her stunner, her fingers briefly brushed over his.

"I said back off!" Alice slowly stood up. Turning as she did so she could see Elizabeth. Elizabeth had a P90 in her hands and was aiming straight at Alice's head.

"Unconscious or not, I wanna see his face."

Just as Elizabeth stepped closer, John spun around and fired at her. Elizabeth stood frozen for a second before collapsing onto the floor. Alice lunged for the stunner and manged to knock it out of John's hands. Then scooted back to out as much distance between her and John as she could.

"Aly! You alright?" She breathed a sigh of relief as Evan ran into sight. Behind him were a few other marines.

"No" she put her hands on her knees. It took everything she had not to collapse right next to Elizabeth.

He put his hand on her back. "Sorry we took so long. We got stuck in that damned corridor for two hours."

Alice nodded and watched as the marines restrained Elizabeth's hands and feet. "We need to get them to Carson." She said hoarsely.

Evan crouched down so he was looking up at her face. "We need to get you there too. Geez Aly look at your throat."

"I think i'd rather not." She winced, the adrenaline was leaving her system so she could start to feel a sharp ache in her neck.

She purposely avoided looking at John. She wouldn't until Carson gave him the all clear either.

————

Alice was sat on the edge of a bed in the infirmary. Carson had his hands on her throat. She flinched as pressed down on a particularly tender spot. He looked up at her sympathetically. "Sorry love."

He spent another couple of moments looking over it. "Well, you're going to have a nasty bruise there for a bit. The swelling should go down in a day or two, you should try to keep speaking to a minimum."

Alice nodded, thankful she had a reason not to speak. Honestly she didn't know what to say to him, or to John. "His brain patterns are all back to normal. It's him" he said as if reading her mind. "He's been asking for you."

Alice dropped her gaze to the floor. Her throat burned. Carson rubbed her shoulder. "Try to get some rest." and left to attend to his other patients.

Ronon was a few beds down from her, he was still out from the operation. Apparently Elizabeth had shot him in the gut, but Carson said he'd be okay in a few days as well.

"There you are." Alice lifted her head to see Evan, Teyla and Rodney approaching her. "How you feeling?"

Evan stood directly infront of her, his eyes were examining every inch of her throat. "Fine. Just tired." She croaked.

"You should rest." Teyla smiled warmly at her and put her hand on her shoulder. "Do you need help getting back to your quarters?"

Alice shook her head and slid off the bed. "I'm not taking no for an answer." Evan slipped his arm around her waist. "Let's go" he ordered.

Alice huffed but allowed him to lead her back to her room. As they opened the door he stayed put at the entrance. "Let me know if you need anything."

Alice's eyes widened in shock. Even though in the infirmary all she wanted was to be left alone, now the thought of being alone here seemed terrifying. "Could you stay please? Just for a bit."

Evan looked at her warily "of course. How about we finally finish watching Star Trek."

—————

Alice woke up in a cold sweat, she'd dreamt of John's cold eyes and his hands on her throat. She brought her hand up to rub her aching throat.

The small clock on her bedside said it was 2:35am. Evan was no where to be seen, he must've snuck out after she'd falled asleep.

Alice threw the covers off her, and pulled on her boots. She need to see him, she'd never let her fear cripple her before and she wasn't about to let it now.

The halls were all deserted, apart from the odd security patrol. She walked determined into the infirmary. "Aly. Are you okay?" Carson stood up from behind his desk.

"I came to see John." She whispered.

He nodded understandingly, "he's through here." He pointed to the cornered off section at the back of the room.

Alice hesitated, she could just see John through the curtains. He was awake and staring down at a datapad.

She squeezed her hand into a fist and strode forward. John heard her approach and looked up, his eyes were wide and went straight to her neck. He quickly pushed himself up in bed. She could tell from his eyes that it was her John again.

"Riles. I...I'm so sorry pleas-" she held up her hand to cut him off.

"It wasn't your fault." Her voice was cracked and hoarse. John winced.

She bit her bottom lip and slid into the chair beside his bed. "I feel responsible, i should've listened." He hung his head. "I'm sorry for what I put you through."

She reached out, but hesitated as she images of his cold stare flashed in her mind. She shook her head and grabbed his hand. "I already said it wasn't your fault. Do you blame Elizabeth for shooting Ronon?"

John looked up. "Of course not."

Alice smiled, John just realised what he said. She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze.

"How does it feel?" He said softly, his eyes focusing on their intertwined hands.

"It's been better." She replied honestly. "It'll go down in a couple days. We're both here right." She turned to look at John's face and cheeky grin spread across her cheeks. "So you're in love with me?"

——————


	21. Chapter 21

**A/N I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone has followed and favourited this story. And an even bigger one to everyone who has reviewed it.**

 **Enjoy the chapter!**

 **———-**

 **In the last chapter -**

She turned to look at John's face and cheeky grin spread across her cheeks. "So you're in love with me?"

———-

John's eyes widened in panic. "Riles, i...uh."

She waited a few moments to say anything, smiling as John's face flushed and he floundered for words. Finally, she leant forward and kissed him.

John made a slight surprised grunt, but quickly took over the kiss. Deepening it by wrapping his hand around the back of her neck. She pulled back to catch her breath and rested her forehead on his. "It's okay...I..." she hesitated. She'd never said it before and it made her feel incredibly vulnerable. "I..." the words caught in her mouth. Her throat tightened as though it was physically stopping the words.

John stopped her with a sweet kiss, "you don't have to. I can wait."

Alice blushed, she hated looking weak or scared. Especially in-front of someone whose opinion she valued over everyone else's. She squeezed his hand. "I should let you sleep." Her face felt like it was on fire, as she walked out of his cornered off space.

Carson was still sat at his desk. Usually she would have stopped and talked to him, but she didn't want to explain what just happened, it felt too intimate. Keeping her head down and her footsteps light she quietly snuck past him and out into the corridor.

———-

Alice's heart was beating anxiously. Her and John had just been asked to report to Elizabeth's office. He'd been released from the infirmary early this morning, so it couldn't be a good sign. Even though Alice had a good relationship with Elizabeth, being called to her office still made her stomach queezey.

She stepped into the control room and walked past the technicians, who luckily were in the middle of shift change so they paid little attention to her.

She could see John was already inside, sat down on one of the chairs. She pulled her hands behind her, her fingers fidgeting against eachother. "Riles." John nodded at her as she walked in.

Elizabeth stood up and smiled. "Alice, please." Gesturing for her to sit down. Alice quickly took a seat, crossing her legs so they wouldn't shake.

Elizabeth cleared her throat. "First of all, i wanted to thank you for everything you did the other day. I'm sorry for what we put you through." Alice started to say how it wasn't their fault. "Please" Elizabeth interrupted. "I know i was resistant to having you both on the same team given your current relationship. However, you have more than proved your commitment to the expedition and I'm very happy to reinstate you onto SGA-1."

Alice was too shocked to speak. She turned to John, who looked as equally stunned. "Th-thank you." She managed to finally squeak out. "I won't let you down."

Alice stood up and had to stop herself for jumping around in joy.

—————-

She'd officially been back on the team for a week now. Everything seemed back to normal, Teyla and Ronon acted like she'd never been gone and Rodney was...well Rodney.

They'd only done a couple of small missions so far, mostly focused on trading with existing allies. But for Alice, everything finally felt like it should. It didn't last long though. Her happiness was shattered with a simple knock on her door.

"Colonel Sheppard! Alice!" Alice awoke with a start. "John!" Someone was yelling through her room door, and bashing loudly. John had already sat up and was quickly pulling on his pants. Alice grabbed her jacket to throw over her pyjamas.

"Teyla?!" John opened the door wide eyed, but his voice thick with sleep. Alice was just a few steps behind him, it wasn't often Teyla looked shaken. But just one look told Alice something was very very wrong.

"It's Major Lorne, his team is under attack." Teyla said quickly.

Alice felt instantly chilled, she spun around and grabbed her clothes and threw them on. John grabbed his shirt and jacket from the floor before following Alice and Teyla out the door. They went straight to the armoury, Ronon and Rodney were already gearing

Less than ten minutes later they were suited up and through the gate. Doctor Lindsay, one of the anthropology scientists was waiting at the gate for them.

She briefed them on the situation as they walked. Alice had to hold herself back from running ahead. She strained her ears trying to hear any sign of gun fire or anything, but the area around the gate sounded peacefully quiet. After what felt like an age, they finally reached the edge of a village and Lindsay kept moving.

"How much further?" Alice asked impatiently.

Lindsay pointed up ahead. "Uh, just around this next corner."

"When was the last time you had any contact with them?" Teyla was walking just behind Alice.

"Uh, they came under fire about half an hour ago. Uh, the major told me to head to the Gate and radio for back-up. I haven't heard from him since." Lindsay explained, she was panting.

"They were under fire and you didn't head back to help?" Ronon's voice was accusational.

Lindsay looked at Ronon nervously. "Major Lorne told me to stay by the gate."

Alice put her hand on Lindsay's shoulder "You did the right thing." They stepped around the corner and froze. Alice's heart stopped. Lindsay gasped. Smoke was rising from the doorway and windows. The entire house had been reduced to ashes.

"Oh, my God." Lindsay threw her hands over her mouth.

John pointed at the building on fire. "Is that the building they were in?" He glanced over at Alice, who was still staring blankly at the house. Evan couldn't be in there, there had to be a mistake. But to Alice's horror Lindsay nodded. She felt a stabbing pain in her chest.

"Let's take a look." He looked over his shoulder to Rodney. "You stay here with Lindsay." Alice stepped forward ready to follow after him. "Riles, maybe you should wait with them."

Alice shook her head, there was no way she was being left on the sidelines. "I need to see for myself."

He nodded grimly, but didn't protest anymore. Slowly they made their way towards the house. The front door was still closed, John was ahead of her, Ronon and Teyla. Both had their guns out and ready. Alice hadn't even realised she had hers raised as well.

John put his hand on the door, Alice knew he was checking to see if there was any heat still burning through the door. He turned his head back at them slightly and nodded. Raising his gun he pushed open the door and stepped inside. Alice followed him through quickly, smoke was still rising from the burning floors making it hard to breathe and see. The wooden beams that once held up the second floor was creaking and a few of them had started falling to the ground.

Teyla swept her light around the room. "A fire like this would have burned the whole village if someone had not dealt with it."

"Somebody put it out. They just don't wanna stick around to talk about it." Ronon agreed

Alice jumped as another beam crashed to the floor just in front of her and John.

"Uh, it's not safe to be up here." Ronon stated obviously.

"Thanks for that!" John snapped.

Alice stepped forward, the ground crunched under her boots. She thought about how the rubber soles of her boots would probably be ruined after this. Shinning her light up ahead of her, there were more fallen beams.

"Ah, I got somethin'." John said from her left. Alice swung her light around to where his was resting. Her throat tightened, underneath a beam was a body.

John kicked some of the debris away and then lifted the beam, tossing it carefully aside. Alice had to force herself to look carefully at the body, but it had been so badly burned she couldn't tell whether it was in a Atlantis uniform or not.

She felt John looking at her, she steeled herself and nodded. He crouched down, took out a small knife, leaning forward he placed the knife against the bodies neck and hooked it on a silver chain. "Dammit!"

"What?" Ronon called from the other side of the room.

Alice didn't need to wait for John's answer, she knew immediately what they were. They couldn't be his though.

"Dog tags." John lifted the chain up higher and shone his light on them. She could see John's jaw tense, his expression changed to a grimace. Then he looked directly at Alice. "Riles...These are Lorne's."

Alice's head swam and her stomach lurched. Without thinking she ran outside, her stomach lurched again and she braced herself against the door as she threw up. She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she finished, turning away from where she had just been sick. She made it three steps before her knees gave out under her and she collapsed onto them.

A sob wracked her whole body. Everything around her seemed to disappear. Evan was dead.

————

Alice hadn't said a word since they'd found the bodies. Carson had given her a quick once over at John's request when he'd arrived to help recover the bodies, but there was nothing he could do. There wasn't a cure for grief.

They'd headed back to the gate with Evan and his team's bodies on stretchers. Ronon and John were carrying Evan. She stared at the black bodybag that now carried her best friend.

She couldn't bare to let him out of her sight, her hand was tightly gripped onto the side of the bag. Alice barely noticed when they passed through the gate, or when John handed over his edge to another marine saying something to Ronon before stepping away.

She followed Evan solemnly through the corridors and into the infirmary where he was finally left to rest on one of the beds. Ronon put his hand on her shoulder and pulled over two chairs for them to sit on.

Alice still had her hand clasped around the bag. Ronon placed his warm hand on her shoulder, it brought her out of her trance. It was only then that she realised her whole body was trembling. "He meant a lot to you didn't he?" Ronon's usually gruff voice was soft and delicate.

"He always will." She tightened her grip on the bag.

Ronon nodded. "I didn't know him well. Did he have any family?"

Alice sniffled. "He had a sister, and two nephews." She smiled. "He spoilt those kids so much." Her eyes started watering. "I can't even remember what i said to him the last time i saw him." Her voice cracked.

Carson walked over to them and placed his hand on Alice's other shoulder. "I'm so sorry Alice." He paused. "I need to start the preparations for the autopsy, you don't want to be here for that dear."

Alice nodded, it took her a moment but she finally managed to let go of the bag. Her fingers had gone white from how hard she'd been gripping. "Take care of him Carson." She smiled slightly at the doctor.

He grabbed her hand from her side and opened her palm. "I will lass. I thought you might want these." He put the dog tags John had found earlier in her hand.

Alice closed her hand around them. "Thank you." She headed for the door, she couldn't bear to turn around and see him lying there motionless. Ronon followed behind her, she had a feeling John told him not to leave her alone. She was fine with that, there was something comforting about Ronon's large posture.

"You hungry?" She looked up at Ronon. It was less a question that it was a known fact.

"I could eat." He said gruffly. Together they headed for the mess hall in silence.

The sounds of the mess hall were comforting, like the SGC there were always people about at every hour. Tonight there were a few groups of marines dotted around and one or two scientists sat alone staring at the tablets intently. Ronon headed straight for the food, Alice lingered in the doorway a moment longer, there was no chance of her eating at the moment. But the warm smell of a fresh pot of coffee drew her over to the small refreshments table. She grabbed a mug with her hand that wasn't holding Evan's dog tags and poured a steaming cup of coffee.

Ronon was still in line for food, so Alice grabbed her mug and headed for an empty table outside. She sat down, placing her mug in front of her, and opened her palm. She stared down at the dog tags, Carson had obviously cleaned them up, they were still slightly tarnished but it didn't look like they'd been in a massive house fire only a few hours ago.

Ronon sat down wordlessly across from her. She could tell he was quietly assessing her, seeing if she was about to lose it any second. "We'll find who did this."

Alice looked up and pursed her lips. "I kind of hope we don't." Ronon looked at her confused. Anger boiled in her chest. "Because I'll make what they put Evan through look painless." She closed her hand over his tags and squeezed.

Ronon didn't say much more, instead focusing his attention on his food. Alice didn't mind, it meant she didn't have to try keep up pretences. Instead, she could focus on the raw sadness and grief tugged on her heart when she realised she'd never see Evan walking down the corridor towards her, or forcing her to watch some new film, and he'd never be around to call her Aly-cat anymore. The grief was like a stab in her chest, it was sharp and painful.

She wasn't sure how she wasn't just curled up on the floor sobbing. Somehow she managed to calmly sip on her coffee. To anyone who waked past, she was sure they probably wouldn't even notice something had happened.

"Hey Riles." Alice twisted her neck around, she hadn't heard John approach them. He pulled out the chair next to her and sat down. Alice shuffled so she was facing slightly towards him. "Do you need anything?"

She was glad he didn't ask if she was okay, but John wasn't new to this. Like Ronon they'd both lost people close to them before, they knew what not to say. She cleared her throat. "Honestly, i don't really know."

John nodded, considering her answer. "I know this isn't probably what you want to focus on at the moment, but we just received a message from Ladim Radim."

Alice straightened up and furrowed her eyebrows. "Wasn't he one of Kolya's men?" John nodded. "What does he want?"

"Apparently he has a ZPM, and he want's to meet to discuss a trade." John explained. "Anyway Elizabeth has called for us to join her to discuss it." Ronon nodded and stood up, mumbling an okay and moving to clear his tray. John watched him for a second before turning back to Alice. "Riles, we've got this. You need some time off, okay?" He gave her a look that told her he would make this an order if he still could.

Alice didn't feel like arguing. "Sure. But if you need me, just let me know. Promise?"

John nodded, leaning forward he placed his lips on her forehead. "I'm so sorry Riles."

He stayed like that for a few seconds before he pulled back and stood up. Alice smiled, watching him catch up with Ronon at the transporter.

———

After they left it wasn't long until the loneliness started to bother her. Even though they'd not said much, Ronon's presence before had been comforting. Right now the silence felt overwhelming, she needed to focus her mind on something else. Work, anything would be better than sitting here alone. She grabbed a can of soda from the fridge and headed for the jumper bay.

Alice took the most direct route, which meant she had to go through the control room and take the stairs up. She walked around the corner of the hall that opened up into the gateroom. The gate had just disengaged and a full tac-team stood surrounding it. Curious Alice hesitantly approached.

She saw John approaching a man stood at the centre of the security detail, he was dressed in standard Genii military garbs. It only took her a few seconds to recognise him, it was Ladon, one of the Genii soldiers that had tried to take over Atlantis during their first year. She narrowed her eyes, he was also one of the men who had sat and watched Kolya shoot her. Though the pain of it was long gone, Alice could swear she felt a slight twinge of pain in the old wound.

She was close enough to hear now. John had a sarcastic smirk on his face. "That's Lieutenant Colonel Errand Boy to you."

His eyes twitched and he saw Alice coming up the stairs towards him. Ladon noticed his distracted gaze and looked over his shoulder to Alice. "Well if it isn't Captain Riley."

Alice straightened her back and tried to stand a bit taller. "I can't say it's good to see you." She narrowed her eyes at him.

John jerked his head to the security team and they started to walk Ladon away.

She followed him as they led him towards the conference room. "What are you doing here?" John put his hand on her shoulder.

"I was actually heading up to the jumper bay. I thought i could take my mind of E.." his name caught in her throat. "Things by working."

John's eyes scanned over her face closely. "Okay. Just take it easy." He inhaled deeply. "Now i've got to go deal with this bastard."

Alice shoved John's shoulder playfully. "You've always been great at diplomacy." She smiled but it seemed hollow. "Come see me In a bit?"

John nodded. "I'll bring you a jello cup."

Alice was just about to step up the first step when her radio crackled in her ear. "Alice, you need to come down to the infirmary right away!" Carson's voice was full of urgency.

"R-right away!" Alice gave John a wide-eyed look. "Carson wants me" she said already running towards the infirmary.

It only took her a minute or two to reach there, the smell was the first thing she noticed when she walked in. She couldn't remember noticing it before, but the burnt smell of skin burned her nose. Her stomach heaved remembering the sight of Evan's burned body. She looked around desperate to find Carson. To her luck he was just taking off his surgical gown, his mask was still around his neck. "What is it?" She asked breathlessly, trying to avoid breathing through her nose.

Carson gave her a shakey smile. "It's not him Alice." Alice just blinked at him, she wasn't sure she understood what Carson was saying. "Evan, that body in there isn't him. None of them actually."

Alice jumped forward and wrapped her arms around him. "He could still be alive then?!" Her voice was a high pitched squeak.

"Carson?" Alice recognised Elizabeth's voice.

"Excuse me m'dear." Carson apologised and walked over to show Elizabeth his findings.

Alice felt elated and shocked. She noticed Ronon and Teyla lurking my the door, she couldn't help but smile as she joined them. "It's not Evan or his men." She explained.

"Glad to hear it." Ronon looked over at the bodies now being wheeled out from the autopsy room. Elizabeth and Carson walked over to join them. "Then Lorne and his men could still be alive." He crossed his arms over his chest.

"Aye." Carson agreed.

"Doctor Lindsay heard Wraith stunners before the fire broke out." Alice had momentarily forgotten Ronon and Teyla had been investigating what had happened.

"But this wasn't a Wraith attack, so ..." Elizabeth trailed off.

" ... so whoever it was wanted us to think they were dead." Ronon finished.

"Then who? What could they possibly want with Lorne?" Elizabeth looked as puzzled as the rest of them.

"Maybe information on Atlantis?" Alice suggested. Honestly, she was still reeling on the fact Evan was still alive. It felt like her system had just been jump started, she was almost trembling.

"We need to go back -- question the villagers." Ronon looked at Elizabeth for her approval.

"OK. But regular radio contact, please." Elizabeth nodded.

"I'm coming too!" Alice started following her two team mates.

"Are you sure?" Elizabeth raised her eyebrows in concern.

"If there is even the slightest chance he's alive, i need to help." Alice said confidently.

Elizabeth pursed her lips but dipped her head. "Okay then, but be safe. All of you." She looked past Alice at Ronon and Teyla.

—————

Alice was looking around the ruins of the burnt out house. Teyla and Ronon had gone ahead to the local bar to see if anyone had seen anything.

Alice was trying to see if she could find any clues as to who had attacked Evan's team. There wasn't much left in the ruins, so far she'd found a few P90 rounds which confirmed Lindsay's story. She knelt down to move a few pieces of rubble.

"Find anything?" Ronon called out to her from the edge of the building.

Alice stood up and wiped her hands on her pants. "Nothing, just a couple of P90 rounds. But it doesn't tell us much." She stepped carefully over the rubble towards him and Teyla. "What about you guys?"

Teyla sighed and shook her head. "The owner was very resistant. He seemed frightened of whoever did this."

Alice bit down on her lip. "Must be scary people if they managed to keep him quiet around someone like Ronon." She glanced at the massive ex-runner, who was giving her his best glower.

"I hope Beckett found some sort of clue, 'cause this was a giant waste of time." He picked a charred piece of wood off the door and flicked it across the village square.

Alice just huffed in agreement and grabbed her bag from the doorway. Together they started making their way through the village back towards the gate.

"Excuse me?" Alice turned to see a young women running towards them with a bag. As she reached them she held it out in front of her. "You-you left this behind."

"It's not ours." Ronon said plainly. Alice stared at the bag, it was simple and definitely not Earth made.

The girl smiled nervously at him. "Yes it is."

"Of course. How foolish of me." Alice glanced at Teyla, she wasn't sure what was going on at the moment. "Thank you." The girl smiled at them again, then hurried away back to where she came from.

"Do you know her?" Alice watched the girl go and looked at Teyla curiously.

"She works at the bar we just went to." Teyla explained.

"What's inside?" Ronon reached for the bag.

Teyla glanced warily around at the villagers nearby. "Not here."

Trying to act natural they kept walking until they found an alley way out of sight from the villagers. Alice checked no-one had followed or was paying attention to them as Teyla swung the bag off her shoulder started to open it.

"What is it?" Ronon and Alice crowded around Teyla trying to see in the bag.

"I do not know." Teyla pulled out some papers from the bag, but as he hands moved Alice realised they were actually photographs. "These are pictures of some of the Atlantis offworld team members."

Alice and Ronon both took a handful of them. Alice squinted at the picture it was of one of Evan's team members, but the picture had several different alien scripts scribbled across it. They all looked like surveillance pictures.

"There." Ronon held out one of his pictures. It was Evan.

"Major Lorne! Why would the villagers have these?" Teyla looked down at the other pictures in her hands.

"The writing on the side here is in a bunch of different languages, offering a great reward for their capture. I bet they've been circulated to dozens of planets." Ronon pointed to one of the scripts he could read.

"I hope you are wrong." Teyla took more pictures out. Alice swallowed, in Teyla's hands were pictures of Alice, Rodney and John.

Alice looked up at Ronon and Teyla warily. Ronon's whole body had tensed. "We need to get you out of here." He looked around them, as though he was expecting people to jump out from nowhere. He put his hand on Alice's shoulder and steered her towards the gate. Teyla stuffed the pictures back into the bag and followed closely behind them.

————

Alice, Teyla and Ronon stepped back through the gate. Elizabeth was standing awaiting their arrival. "How did it go?"

Alice noticed the numerous Genii sitting on the small stairs leading up to the gate platform.

Ronon was obviously thinking the same thing. "What did we miss?"

Elizabeth looked around her at the Genii. "We have some guests."

"Yeah, I can see that." Ronon looked suspicious at the strangers.

"Doctor Weir, there is something you need to see." Teyla gestured to the bag in her hand.

Elizabeth nodded. "Let's go to my office."

They quickly made their way up to Elizabeth's office. The door automatically closed behind them. Teyla handed Ronon the bag and he started laying out the photographs on Elizabeth's desk.

Elizabeth picked up one of the pictures. "What's all this?"

"It's a wanted list." Ronon explained. "We figure it's on as many worlds as there are languages on the photos."

"Who would do that?" She looked at the others spread around on her desk.

"We are not sure, but the planet where Lorne's team disappeared is quite poor. It is conceivable they gave up Lorne and his men for some sort of reward." Alice nodded along with Teyla's theory.

"It also means they could still be alive." Alice added in.

"But to who?" Elizabeth stared confounded at Alice and Teyla.

"And why aren't we on it?" Alice smirked, she hadn't realised that Ronon had been bothered he wasn't on the wanted list.

"Excuse me?" Elizabeth tilted her head.

Ronon leaned over and picked up three pictures. "Sheppard's on the list; Alice is on the list and so is McKay. Why aren't Teyla and me?"

"What, you're feeling left out?!" Elizabeth looked like she was trying to hide a smile.

"I just wanna know who thinks I'm not a threat and give 'em a chance to change their mind." Ronon glared at the images.

Elizabeth looked back down at the photographs. "The gene. They all have the gene. Naturally or not, all these men and Alice possess the A.T.A. gene."

"But why would someone want people simply because they possess a certain kind of gene?" Teyla and Ronon looked around at Alice.

"Hey, don't look at me. Hell if i know what that want with me."

"Maybe they think it will hurt our ability to operate the city. But Ronon, that's why you're not here. See? Most of Edison's team is on the list -- except Toreil. He's the only one on that team that doesn't have the gene." Elizabeth pointed to the men as she spoke.

"Still doesn't make any sense." If Alice didn't know Ronon better she could've sworn he was pouting.

"I suggest you call these men back if they are offworld." Teyla said to Elizabeth.

"Maybe let's not tell John he's on a galactic wanted list. He's head is big enough already." Alice smirked.

"Yes." Elizabeth smiled. "And most of these guys are on an operation with Sheppard right now. We are raiding Ladon's warehouse and stealing back the ZeeP.M. We detained most of his team when they came here to pick up the weapons we offered them. Once Sheppard and the team get back, I will suspend all their offworld activity until we can get to the bottom of this."

Before the rest of them could say anything else. Elizabeth touched her hand to her ear, someone had called her on the radio. "On my way, Carson." She replied then dropped her hand. "This is probably about the bodies. You two should come along. Alice can you stay here and monitor the Genii and let me know the second Sheppard's team check in." Elizabeth, Teyla and Ronon had already started heading to the door.

"No problem." Alice nodded and headed for the control room.

————-

Alice paced in the control room. John's team were more than an hour overdue now, in Alice's world this didn't make them necessarily in trouble - procedure was normally to wait two hours after scheduled check in time. She knew better than most that a radio transmission at the wrong time could mean the failure of the mission or even cost lives.

Alice looked down at her watch. "Alright, Chuck I'm calling it. Dial M6R-867."

Chuck nodded and started dialling the address. Before he could hit the final control the gate started dialling in. "Unscheduled off-world activation!"

Alice rushed around the control panel to the balcony. "Security teams!" She yelled down to the men below.

Chuck raised the shield, Alice turned back to see Elizabeth walking across the gantry to them. "What have we got?"

"Not sure yet, ma'am. I'm not reading an I.D.C."

The control room was tense, ready to expect anything. But nothing happened. Alice grabbed one of the laptops from the empty station and checked the readings. "Nothing." She narrowed her eyes. "Wait, there's a radio signal!"

"Doctor Weir, this is Commander Cowen, leader of the Genii." Cowen's voice came through the main comms control panel.

Elizabeth stepped over to the panel. "Where is Colonel Sheppard?"

"He's right here with me, along with the men you sent to storm this complex. Some would view that as an act of war."

"We were just trying to quell your rebellion before it started." Elizabeth looked around the room, settling her gaze on Alice.

"I think we both know what your intentions were, Doctor. And now it's time you became aware of mine. I will release your men, but I expect something in return."

Alice watched as Elizabeth tensed and relaxed her fist as she spoke. "We have twelve of your own: how about a straight trade?"

"The Genii you've imagined as your potential hostages are terminally ill. They volunteered for the mission. They knew they were never coming back from the moment they heard of my plan."

Elizabeth turned away from the panel and walked over to lean on the balcony railing. Alice knew she was considering their options, the situation wasn't good, they had nothing now to offer as leverage. Alice wanted to jump in but she held her tongue, Elizabeth was the expert in this field. "Why are you doing this?"

"The Genii people need the Lantean ships you call Jumpers. I believe you have ten of them. You have one hour to bring them all here."

"And if I don't?"

"We will kill one of your team every fifteen minutes until our demands are met. Oh, and we will be starting with Colonel Sheppard."

The gate shut down at the end of Cowen's sentence. Alice's whole body tensed, she threw a panicked look at Elizabeth.

Alice tapped her radio. "Miller, I need you up here now." She turned to look at Elizabeth who was running her fingers through her hair. "We need to get some surveillance, Miller can take a cloaked jumper through and give us a better idea of the situation."

It took them 10 minutes to get Miller briefed and ready in the jumper. Alice, Teyla and Ronon were all sat in the control room waiting for him to dial back in and report on the situation. Elizabeth had retreated back to her office, Alice thought she might be running through different negotiation options.

When the report came through it wasn't that positive. They stood up and went to give Elizabeth the news, Alice nodded a greeting to Carson who had just appeared from the stairwell. His expression matched the rest of them, grim.

"Lieutenant Miller did a cloaked scan of the planet. It looks like the Genii have moved in a massive amount of troops over the past fifteen minutes..." Alice grimaced, the odds were getting worse by the minute. And judging by Elizabeth's expression she'd not come up with any breakthroughs.

"I'm afraid they have us greatly outnumbered. Any attempt to extract our men would result in many casualties on both sides." Teyla finished for Alice.

Ronon pushed himself off the wall he had been leaning on. "Let me get in there and see what I can do."

Elizabeth shook her head. "No. The last thing I need is for more of us to fall into their hands." She looked over at Carson. "How are our Genii guests doing?"

"Well, they have a number of different symptoms and ailments, but they all trace back to one thing: radiation poisoning." He held his tablet against his stomach.

"Well, McKay warned them that the shielding for their fission experiments was dangerously insufficient. I guess they didn't listen."

"Aye."

"Can you cure them?" Alice could tell Elizabeth was forming the basis of a plan.

Alice half listened to the rest of the discussion. Her mind was on other things. Not only was her best friend still missing, but now John was being held captive and would be killed in less that 35 minutes. "Whatever we do we can't let them kill our people."

The others nodded their heads in agreement. "Let's go bring them home." Elizabeth dismissed them.

———

Alice was sat in one of the control room chairs, her leg was nervously bouncing up and down. Her stomach felt like it was twisting itself into knots. The gate had dialled in 5 minutes ago and Elizabeth had been explaining how we could easily cure the majority of the Genii they sent through as hostages.

Elizabeth was getting frustrated. "I don't think you understand." She kept her voice level as she addressed Cowen. "Most of your people can be cured, including Ladon's sister."

"Oh, I understand. What you need to understand is, I don't care." Cowen answered bluntly.

"What?" Elizabeth's jaw tightened. Alice balled up her fist and bit down on her fingers to stop her from yelling at him. How could someone have such disregard for his own people's lives.

"I think you're playing for time, Doctor Weir." Cowen's cold voice crackled through the speaker.

"Your people can be cured. Now let me return them to you and let them live out the rest of their lives with their families on their " Elizabeth argued again.

"The Genii need those Jumpers. Until you are prepared to part with them, this conversation is over."

"You kill one of my people and we are in a state of war." Elizabeth's face hardened.

"Oh, yes, yes!" Cowen chuckled. "I -- well, I don't quite know how I'll live with myself!" His voice was laced with sarcasm. "I will contact you again in fifteen minutes, so you can decide whether you would like Doctor McKay to live." His voice was hard and absolute. "In the meantime, you have forfeited the life of Colonel Sheppard."

Alice kicked the chair back as she stood bolt upright. "No!" She cried out.

"Cowen, wait!" Elizabeth yelled as well. But there was no response.

"Cowen! You coward answer me!" Alice smashed her fist down on the control board in frustration.

"We've lost the signal." Chuck said.

"God dammit!" Alice yelled.

Elizabeth paced around the Control Room. "Anything?" Alice had her head resting in her hands.

"We're still connected, but he's turned the radio off. I'm not getting any signal." Chuck replied disheartenedly.

"Dammit! Elizabeth, what if we offered them one Jumper in exchange for Colonel Sheppard?" Carson stepped around the control panel looking between Alice and Elizabeth.

Alice lifted her head up. "It wouldn't help now."

"Carson" Elizabeth's voice was sharp. "we have less than fifteen minutes before they kill McKay."

"You can deliver all the Jumpers you want." Ronon grunted. He pointed to the gate. "They're gonna kill everyone. We need to attack them now."

"Ronon's right. Let's prepare a strike team." Alice stood up and looked at Elizabeth, challenging her to say no. Her heart was beating so hard she was sure anyone standing close to her would be able to hear it.

She wasn't going to believe John was dead until she was standing over his dead body. Her mind just couldn't take the torture of assuming Cowen followed through with his threat. Her team had been in worse situations and had always made it through, this time was no different. It couldn't be, Alice tried to convince herself.

"Go." Elizabeth said softly.

Alice, Ronon and Teyla moved simultaneously. "Chuck, get Lloyd and his team up here. Tell Miller to prepare for our arrival, we may need suppressive fire around the gate." She was yelling the orders as she ran down the stairs. She didn't care right now that she wasn't military and she didn't really have any right to be ordering these men around.

Lloyd and his men were already suiting up when Alice arrived at the armoury. She grabbed her gear and quickly Loaded herself up. "Let's go get them."

They ran back to the gateroom, doing their equipment checks as they went. Elizabeth was standing over the balcony. The gate was still active. Alice did a quick check of her team, they nodded back their readiness to her. "We're ready! re-dial the gate." She yelled up to Chuck.

"Wait!! Receiving Doctor McKay's I.D.C." Alice froze as Chuck's voice yelled out from the control room.

"Defence teams, stand by!" Elizabeth shouted down the them.

Alice watched as the shield dropped. "Support the defence!" She ordered her team. She moved towards the too steps next to one of the security team members.

Just as the shield lowered, a group of marines and Genii appeared through the event horizon. Alice tensed, her gun instantly trained on The Genii. But to her surprise they immediately held up their weapons in surrender and the marines quickly disarmed them. Elizabeth had been halfway down the stairs as the group came through, she was still stood there frozen in shock at what was happening. Rodney was next through the gate, he was waving happily at Elizabeth.

"Rodney!"

"It's Ladon. He's letting us go in exchange for his people." Rodney said cheerily.

"Secure them." Alice ordered the security teams. She relaxed her grip on her weapon and stood up. Her eyes scanned the crowd. No John. No Evan. Her chest still felt tight, but more men were still coming through the gate.

"Ladon's in charge?!" Elizabeth joined them on the platform.

"Yeah, he's about to be."

"He really was planning a coup." Elizabeth said, in slight disbelief.

"Apparently we're a part of the plan." Rodney smirked, apparently unconcerned that he was just used.

"Shield up." Alice felt a shiver of relief spread down her spine as she recognised John's voice.

She twisted her head around to see John walking towards her with Ladon by his side. Ladon dipped his head respectfully at Elizabeth, who just narrowed her eyes. "Now, please, I would like to see my sister."

Elizabeth considered him for a minute before nodding and gesturing towards the infirmary. She gave John a look that said he would need to explain everything soon.

John turned to the Genii being gathered together by the security teams. "Take them to the conference room and keep them there until Ladon returns."

As he turned around he had a smug smile on his face. Alice thrust her finger into his chest, giving him her best glare. "You. Have a lot of explaining to do."

Rodney shot John a sympathetic look and skulked away quickly. John's smirked turned into a ashamed grin, his hand came up to rub the back of his head. A flash of movement caught Alice's eye, Evan was standing just off to the side of the gate, talking to Lloyd. Alice shot John another glare. "This isn't over!"

She ran, crossing the gateroom in seconds to envelop Evan into a crushing hug. "You're alive..."

Evan chuckled. "Come on, you think some Genii are going to take me out. Aly i thought you had more faith in me."

————

Alice said her good nights to the team. Ronon, Teyla and Evan were still sat around a table in the mess hall. Alice wasn't sure what time it was but it was definitely past midnight. Rodney had already called it a night and John had left earlier to deal with an incoming communication from Ladon.

Alice had a wide grin plastered on her face. Today she'd almost lost the people closest to her, she couldn't help but be thankful to have them both back here safely with her. She opened the door to her room, it didn't surprise her to see John already there resting on her bed. His arms were locked behind his head and his eyes were closed.

She shook her head, and rolled her eyes. Quietly she shrugged her jacket off and placed it on the back of her chair, then lent down to untie her shoes and slip them off. Once she placed them neatly beside John's she walked over to where he lay with his eyes still closed. She took in a deep breath as she looked over his face.

They both knew that with this job everyday could be their last. But it wasn't till days like this where she actually imagined having to live through John's death. She closed her eyes trying to shut the thoughts out of her mind. He was alive, that's all that mattered. And it was time for her to get over her fear.

Gently, she put one of her knees on the edge of the bed so she could swing her other leg over John's hips. John didn't open he eyes but the corners of his mouth turned upwards and his hands immediately went to her hips. Alice caressed the side of his face with her hand. She could feel the rough stubble that had started to grow. "I thought you were going to die." She whispered softly.

John opened his eyes, his hazel eyes gently gazed over her face. He squeezed her hips and dragged one hand up to the back of her neck, slowly guiding her down so he could reach up and put his lips on hers. "I'm sorry. But i'm afraid i'm not going anywhere."

She smiled into his kiss. "I love you." She placed another kiss on his lips. "I'm sorry i couldn't say it before."

His grip on her neck tightened and he pulled into a passionate kiss, she could feel his mouth was smiling. "I love you Riles."


	22. Chapter 22

**A/N Thank you everyone for the latest reviews and follows.**

 **I hope you enjoy the next chapter, out of all the ones i've written so far this was by far one of the more challenging to write.**

Alice held her breath, a small Wraith patrol were rounding the corner. Rodney had his eyes tightly shut. Alice had to resist hitting him, she got that he was scared but shutting his eyes and wishing the situation away wasn't going to help anyone. If anything it could get them all killed.

She silently started counting to 20, her eyes glued to the white blinking dots on her scanner. That should be how long it took for the patrol to walk from the corner down to the hallway just before theirs. If they didn't turn, then Alice and Rodney would need to act very quickly. Just as she reached 20 the sound of the footsteps started fading and the dots moved away from them. She let out the breath she'd been holding. "Okay, we're clear. Let's go." She tapped Rodney's arm, his eyes shot wide open.

"Are you sure!?" He hissed.

Alice held up her finger to her mouth, stealth was the key to the success of their mission. Rodney clamped his mouth shut, satisfied he wasn't going to make another sound Alice, staying in a low crouch, moved forward out into the open.

They turned down the corner the patrol had just come from and then quickly hid in a door frame. Rodney fumbled for his tablet, whilst Alice flicked her knife out and stabbed it into the wall below the control panel. They'd finally reached their goal. Rodney passed her his connection crystal and she slipped it into the hole she'd just created.

He made a few taps on the screen and the door opened. Alice disconnected the crystal and ushered them inside the room. She hit the control to close the door behind them and looked around the room. Wraith laboratories were always disgusting, medical instruments and vials of strange fluids made the already creepy organic infrastructure extra gross. Alice pressed down on her radio. "We're in the lab now, eta back to the jumper is 10 minutes. What's your status?" Alice watched as Rodney plugged his tablet into the Wraith computer and attempted to extract the database. She pulled some beige packets out from her bag and started putting them where they'd planned.

"You might want to get a move on. We're seeing a lot of movement out here Riles." John replied.

Alice shook her head, John still didn't really get that not everything can be rushed. Alice looked up at Rodney from where she was crouched. "One minute Rodney."

"I know, I know. Just." He tapped ferociously on his screen. "One. More. Second." He grinned. "Got it."

Alice turned her attention back to the door, then down to the ancient scanner in her hands. Nothing was around them for now, and hopefully their path back to the jumper was still clear too.

"Okay, done! Let's go." Rodney packed away his connection leads and shoved his laptop back into his backpack.

Alice nodded and opened the door. "We're on our way back." She said into the radio.

It took them a bit longer to get back than Alice had hoped. They almost ran into three patrols, luckily they'd been able to find a place to hide each time. But Alice had the feeling their luck was about to run about. She just didn't realise how right she'd be. They rounded another corner and standing in the entrance was a Wraith officer.

Alice threw her arm out to stop Rodney from running out into his full view. Rodney's eyes were wide with panic. Though to Alice's relief he kept quiet. The Wraith must have heard them though, cause he started approaching them.

Alice gulped, she checked her life signs scanner. White dots blipped all around them, there was no other way out. She checked her P90 making sure she had a full clip and it wasn't jammed. She also unclipped the top of her thigh holster, this was the chance of a lifetime. All SG teams had standing orders to capture a Wraith alive. This was her chance. "Get ready. Stay low and get past him the second you see an opening." Rodney nodded.

Alice stepped out into view of the Wraith, he noticed her immediately and snarled, hitting a button on his wrist. Alice cursed, she wasn't fast enough. Alarms started blaring.

Alice hesitated, then she opened fire aiming for his limbs. "Rodney! Go!" Rodney peeked out behind her and ran for the exit.

The Wraith closed the distance quickly. Alice dropped her P90 and pulled out her stunner, she got one shot off before the Wraith knocked it out of her hands. He pulled back his hand, but Alice dropped to the ground sweeping her leg around knocking him down on his side.

She lunged for the stunner, but the Wraith grabbed her leg and pulled her back towards him, her face slammed into the ground. She could taste blood in her mouth, but it didn't slow her down. Alice tried to kick his hands off her, but he had a strong grip. He'd managed to get back onto his knees. Scrambling up to twist herself around onto her back, she narrowly avoided another blow to the head. Instead of her head, his fist made a dull thud as it connected with the ground.

Her leg was now free of his grip, but he had the advantage. She was in a very dangerous position, either she needed to reach her gun or get back on her feet. The Wraith made another strike, Alice rolled, but it was ready. She cried out in pain as its fist connected with her ribs.

The pain clouded her sight for a split second, but long enough for the Wraith to place another strike against her head. She heard a crack in her jaw as the power of its punch sent her head slamming hard into the floor.

Alice could see stars, she felt blood welling up in her mouth. But her years of training made fighting a second nature. She grabbed the Wraith by its coat kicking its legs so she could reverse their positions. The Wraith growled as it crashed into the ground. Alice scrambled off, but the Wraith managed to connect his leg into Alice's chest causing her to fly back and skid along the floor. This worked to her advantage, she stretched out her fingers and grabbed her stunner. She fired several rapid shots straight into the Wraith's head.

It struggled, still moving as its body convulsed. Alice fired twice more causing it to finally dropped to his knees snarling at her. Another second later it was unconscious on the ground.

"Aly!" Rodney called from the exit. Alice struggled to her feet, wiping some of the dripping blood from her mouth.

"I thought i told you to get to the ship." She drawled. It was numb at the moment, but she'd definitely broken her jaw.

"You weren't behind me, and you didn't answer the radio." Alice tapped her ear and realised her earpiece was missing. It must've fallen out during the fight. Scanning the floor she found it a few inches from where her stunner had fallen.

"Riles!? Riles!?" John was yelling into the radio.

"I'm here." She croaked.

"Thank god. Where are you?"

"Ran into a problem leaving, we're on our way."

Rodney was looking at her stunned as she approached the unconscious Wraith. "What are you doing?!" He whispered, his eyes wide with fear.

Alice just ignored him and grabbed the back of the Wraith's cloak. "Help me. Now!" She started pulling the Wraith towards the jumper. "Rodney!" She shouted. Finally, he came to his senses and bent down to help help. "We're out!" She shouted as they ran into her radio.

Alice could see the jumper up ahead, the weight of the Wraith was slowing them down significantly. She tried to ignore the burning sensation in her side everytime she pulled on her right side. The strike from the Wraith must've cracked one or two of her ribs.

Ahead of them, Ronon was hiding behind a tree next to the open cargo bay, keeping some Wraith guards at bay. She couldn't see John, but she imagined he was prepping for take off. Teyla saw them approaching and her face went white. Alice and Rodney bolted towards Ronon. She fired some poorly aimed shots into the trees. "We're in!" She yelled as they reached the Jumper's ramp and dragged the still unconscious Wraith up into the cargo bay.

"Everyone fall back." John yelled back from the cockpit. Alice crouched down in the doorway and fired at the approaching Wraith with her stunner, clearing a path for Ronon to run back to the ship.

As soon as he did he slammed the door controls and Alice rolled back into the cargo hold. The door closed and she breathed a sigh of relief. That was until she realised she was now laying flat next to the Wraith. "Aghhh" she jumped up to her feet, though instantly regretting it as she almost collapsed back on the floor in agony.

"What's this doing here!" Ronon growled.

Warily Alice stepped over the body, thinking at any moment it would jump up and grab her. She decided to ignore Ronon's blazing glare. Not taking her eyes off the Wraith, she reached up into the cargo belts and pulled out a few sets of zip ties. She switched the safety back on her gun and clipped it back onto her vest. Then she quickly ducked down and began to secure the Wraith's hands and feet. She used multiple restraints, not that they would hold him, but they'd at least stop him long enough for Ronon to get a shot off. "You got him?" She asked Ronon. He just grunted, not taking his eyes off it.

She stood up and opened the door to the cockpit which Rodney had closed. "What the hell is that thing doing here?!" John was pissed. "Riles!" His eyes were wide as she struggled into a seat, she was sure she looked like a mess. She could feel her jaw swelling and blood was still filling her mouth. She kept her arm wrapped around her chest to lessen the pain.

"Y'know the Doc has standing orders to capture one of these things." Alice replied wincing without looking at him.

"And now seemed like the best time? You could have gotten everyone killed." Alice huffed, she could feel John's eyes burning a hole through her. "Okay, we're in position. Blow it." John held out his detonator, but instead of giving it to her, he lent back and handed it to Teyla.

Alice bit her lip, Teyla gave her an awkward look. But Alice just held out her own and gave it to Teyla. Simultaneously she flicked up the red covers and hit the switches. Through the HUD they could see a series of explosions radiate out of the Wraith outpost they'd just left.

"Let's get this bastard home then shall we?" John drove the jumper towards the gate, as Teyla hit the address. Alice stormed, as best she could back into the rear compartment, slapping the controls to shut the door behind her. She'd rather be sat in with the Wraith than John right now.

—-

Alice stood with her arms crossed as she stood in the observation deck of the isolation room. She wasn't sure if she was regretting her decision to bring the Wraith back. Following orders, it was something she'd always been good at. But, sometimes she didn't always consider the consequences of those orders, and it had gotten her in trouble once or twice. The only difference now was that she didn't have to follow them, though it still felt like she was bound by them.

She turned her gaze back down through the glass to the Wraith, John had named Michael, it thrashing against its restraints.

Carson was injecting another round of the retrovirus into his neck. "I didn't think you'd be up here." Alice turned to see John walking through the door towards her.

They'd not spoken much since they got back, though every time she was in a room with him she could feel the tension building. She'd spent the first week of Michael's stay on the other side of the door in the infirmary. He'd really done a number on her. She had three cracked ribs, and a fractured jaw. Alice knew John was pissed at her, but she'd refused to acknowledge him. Since she'd been released she'd made it her mission to best avoid him.

But, it was a small city. She'd known it was only a matter of time before the pressure got too much and the dam burst. "I don't like the idea of Carson being alone in there with that thing."

"I've got guards on the cameras and just outside the doors." John came to a stop beside her. There was a tense silence. "Riles... what were you thinking?"

She swiveled so she was facing him, her eyes narrowed as she glared at him. "I was following orders! I had a chance and i took it." She raised her voice.

John held her glare. "You were reckless! Did you even stop to consider that you could've gotten everyone killed! Look what it did to you." He yelled back at her gesturing to the bruising still present on her face.

"I would never endanger the team. You would have done exactly the same if you'd had the chance. And in case you didn't notice we all made it back." She pushed past him, he grabbed her arm as she past. Her eyes blazed at him and he let go, allowing her to storm out.

—-

Alice ducked under Ronon's punch. Spinning quickly on her heel and punching him in the side, so his arm collapsed into her grip. She laughed and grinned, "got yah that time."

He smirked and scoffed. "You're still slower."

Alice released his arm and they both grabbed their towels to wipe their foreheads. She scowled at him. "I'm quick enough, I can still take out most of the military personnel here."

Ronon gave her a patronising look. "The Wraith are faster than that. You need to train more."

Alice threw her towel down and grabbed her water bottle from the seat, squirting some water into her mouth. She kept her eyes trained on Ronon. It was true since she'd got back she'd slacked on her combat training, and she had gotten lucky in her last battle with Michael. "One more round then."

Ronon let out a breathy laugh. "You just got released from the Infirmary, Sheppard would kill me if i put you back so quickly."

Alice scowled. "I'll be fine, i'm not as fragile as you all seem to think." She stepped back onto the mat and brought her hands up, narrowing her eyes in concentration.

Ronon seemed hesitant, but she also knew he wouldn't back down from a direct challenge, especially when she was this serious. She quickly tried to remember the basic skills Ronon had taught her when they first started training together. Dropped her eyes down to his feet, she tried to determine what direction he was going to come at her. A second before he moved it was almost like she could predict his movements. This gave her just enough time to move, but rather than move away she rushed forward hoping to unbalance him. Ronon reacted quickly though, twisting his body and thrusting his hand hard into her shoulder.

Alice braced herself against his blow, bringing her fist up to jab him in the throat. Ronon let out a surprised choked cough as her hand connected. "Quick enough for you!" She bragged. Alice knew the moment she'd finished talking it had been a mistake. Ronon clamped his arm around hers, his hand grabbing her neck and pushing her elbow out the wrong way. Pain shot down her arm. Before she could move to free herself, Ronon slammed his open palm against her chest.

Alice dropped to her knees, Ronon released her arm just in time for her to be able to catch herself. Her chest ached. "Good one..." she spluttered.

Ronon chuckled. "Told you."

"Yeah. Yeah. You won, now help me up." She held up her hand and he helped pull her up. She wheezed as she stretched out, a sharp pain radiated out from her chest. "Ow." Alice doubled over and clutched her chest just over her heart.

"You okay?" Ronon stopped and frowned at her.

Alice took in a couple of deep breaths, allowing her chest to contract and expand. After a few breaths the pain started fading and she pulled herself back up. "Yeah, fine. Just tender ribs."

Ronon didn't look overly convinced. "I told you, you need to take it easy." Alice grabbed her bag, shoving her towel and water bottle into it. Ronon sat down on the window ledge, he went to grab his bag but stopped to look up at her awkwardly. "Have you spoken to Sheppard?"

Alice dropped her bag, all traces of her smile gone. "Why? Is he getting you to check up on me?"

"No" he grunted.

Alice cursed herself she knew that neither of them would do anything like that. "Sorry" she muttered.

"You should talk to him."

"Since when did you become a relationship expert." Alice raised an eyebrow at him. She had aways wondered if Ronon had left someone behind on Sateda. He'd never seemed interested in any of the women on the base. At one point she thought him and Teyla might have had something, but she knew Teyla was interested in another Athosian.

Ronon didn't reply. Alice wanted to change the topic. "Have you been told about the plan?" Bringing up their Wraith prisoner around Ronon wasn't usually a great idea, but at least it would get her off John as a topic.

"Yeah." He replied gruffly.

Alice waited expectantly, sometimes it was like pulling teeth with this man. "And?!" She said finally.

Ronon wiped his forehead again and swung the bag up onto his shoulder. "We should kill it, once a Wraith always a Wraith. That injection isn't going to change what it is."

Alice nodded as she considered his answer. Her mind kept flashing back to Ellia, sure it had been unsettling being around a humanised Wraith. Could she ever trust something that used to be a Wraith, or was Ronon right. But if they really could cure need for Wraith to feed and change them into humans then the better for everyone, wasn't it?

She stayed still for a moment, lost in her own thoughts about the Wraith. Carson had mentioned an unknown side effect of the drug was its impact on memory. According to him the Wraith, or Michael, wouldn't even remember being a Wraith.

"Attention, Ronon and Doctor Riley, report to the briefing room." Chuck's voice called over the gyms internal comms system.

Alice wrinkled her nose. This couldn't be anything good. Together they grabbed their bags and headed for the briefing room.

—-

Alice tugged the strap of her sports bra, she felt a bit self conscious walking around the city with just her gym leggings and maroon sports bra. Especially as her skin was still slightly tinged with purpleish bruises. They took the transporter to the control room and swiftly walked past the technicians on duty, murmuring a quick hello and walked straight into the briefing room.

John and Elizabeth had grim looks on their face, Carson was chewing on his finger and looking at his feet. Alice avoided looking at his face, keeping her eyes on the floor as she took her seat. Teyla and Rodney walked in a few seconds behind Alice and Ronon. "Is this important because i've got..." Rodney trailed off as he saw John and Elizabeth's faces.

"Sit down." John ordered.

Elizabeth clasped her hands together and looked over to Carson. "Carson, I think you should explain it."

Carson nodded, but he hesitated. Alice narrowed her eyes glancing between Elizabeth and the doctor. She noticed the dark circles under his eyes, it looked like he'd not slept in days and his lips were turned down into a slight frown. It was odd not to see Carson smiling. "What's going on?" Alice stared at Carson.

He took in a deep breath. "We had an idea. As you all know the retrovirus had an unexpected side effect. It's wiping Michael's memory clean." Alice shivered as he referred to the Wraith by name. "We think we can use this, once the transformation is complete, we want to try integrate him into Atlantis."

Alice stood up immediately. "You can't be serious! He's a Wraith. I'm pretty sure i still heard him yelling about sucking the life out of us just this morning." She stared accusingly at him.

John cleared his throat. "The doc thinks all those...urges will disappear after the next couple of rounds." Alice could tell John wasn't convinced, but he was putting his best united front on. She gave him an icy look, she didn't always like when John got sweet talked into bad plans by Elizabeth.

"This is a bad idea. He's a Wraith, your drug won't change that." Ronon said from behind Alice.

"This isn't a decision we're taking lightly." Elizabeth's voice was clear and commanding. Alice slowly took her seat again. "When Carson's reached a point in his treatment where he thinks it's safe, only then would we consider integrating him."

"If my test results are correct, and i've run them almost a hundred times now." Carson said daring them to question him. "Then Michael will genetically be no different to you or I. He will be human, why shouldn't we try to give him a human life?"

Alice bit down on her lip. She looked around the table at her teammates. Rodney looked pale, Ronon looked ready to flip the table and Teyla was deep in thought.

"And there would be no danger to any personnel?" Teyla broke out of her thoughts, looking at Elizabeth.

John leaned forward before Elizabeth could reply. "We'd keep a full detail on him. Just to be safe and he'd be on camera 24/7."

Alice nodded. "So we're actually considering doing this..." she murmured mostly to herself. "Even if we know for sure his memory is gone, and all his..." she looked pointedly at John. "Urges are gone. He still could be a risk to everyone on the base. What happens when he finds out what we've done to him?"

"He won't find out." John replied, his tone prickly.

Ronon stood up. "I still think this is a bad idea. He's a Wraith nothing is going to change that." He left the room after that.

"We're going to try." Elizabeth decided.

Carson nodded. "We'll start devising a backstory and let you know how the next few rounds of the retrovirus go. But we should be in a good position to know by the end of the week." Carson said slightly more confidently.

"Thank you Carson." Elizabeth stood up and dismissed the group.

Alice watched John as she stood up. She quickly looked away as he looked over to her. She headed for the door, hoping to make it out of there before John or anyone could stop her. But she wasn't fast enough. She felt a hand on her shoulder. "Balcony. Now." John said sternly in her ear. She knew she didn't have a choice, if she avoided him now he would just track her down. Together they walked out and opened the door to the balcony.

John didn't wait until the door closed. "What are you thinking?!" He shouted. "You can't act so offended about our plan when it was your actions that brought it here."

"Our plan? Since when did you become Elizabeth's lap dog." She yelled back at him, her hands clenching into fists at her side. "And i was just following orders."

"Oh don't give me that. You're not in the military now, you can't hide behind that." Alice had never seen him this angry at her before. "You put everyone on our team at risk!"

"Every time we step through that gate" she threw her hand back towards the gateroom. "We put ourselves at risk! Why was this time any different!" She stepped closer glaring at him.

"Because i thought i'd lost you!" He shouted back. He closed his eyes, sighing. "God Alice." He stepped back turning away from her and running a hand through his already messy hair. Things were definitely serious, John never used her first name.

Alice stood rooted to the spot, biting down on her bottom lip. "This is because you thought i was dead?" John turned back to look at her, Alice almost gasped at the raw pain in his eyes. "John. Any mission. At any moment could be the end. That's the job. I've thought you were dead more times than i can count."

"This is different." John stepped closer.

Alice felt a renewed blaze coarse through her body.

"How is this any different? Because it was me and not you?" She clenched her jaw.

"Yes" John replied immediately. "I mean. No."

Alice held her chin and glared at John defiantly. "My life isn't worth more than anyone else's on this base. And if the situation called for it I would gladly lay down my life to save anyone here, just like you would. You can't protect me 24/7. If you can't handle that, then we need to rethink our situation."

"I won't let it be my orders that send you to your death!" They were standing almost chest to chest. "I know this is the risk we take, but you can't expect me to be happy about it."

Alice softened her expression. "It's not going to get any easier than this. We put everything on the line every day."

John looked down at the ground. Alice knew he was struggling with this, she could understand the pressure and responsibility any team leader felt over their team. But she had no idea what it would feel like to know you ordered the person you loved to their death. He walked over to the railing and stared out along the horizon.

Alice wasn't sure what to do. All the anger from before had dissipated, but all that was left now was a hesitance. "Sorry Riles. I just..."

She stepped forward and put her hand on his cheek and leant in to kiss his cheek softly. "We just have to make sure we make every moment count."

John nodded. His expression turning back to normal. "So, what do you really think about this plan?"

Alice sighed and ran her hand through her hair. "Honestly John, i don't know. It makes my stomach turn... But that doesn't mean it isn't right. Do you think we should do this?" She chewed on her lip.

He didn't say anything, Alice looked away, she knew he was trying to decide if he was going to keep up the united leader facade or tell her the truth. Finally, he said. "If there's even the slightest chance this could save lives and end the war then why shouldn't we try."

She wasn't surprised, that answer meant he could keep to both stories. Another responsibility of a leader. "You're right, we have to try whatever we can. You've got my support."

John smiled. "Thanks Riles. This isn't going to be easy, and Ronon isn't going to be the only one whose against this. I know you're hesitant, but your support in this means a lot." He said earnestly.

Alice smiled, she stepped forward and reached up to kiss him quickly on the cheek. "We'll figure it out. We always do."

—

Alice spent a lot of time watching their new 'lieutenant' from the observation deck. Carson had shared the fake backstory they'd developed for the Wraith with the senior team members, once it had been approved Elizabeth had called an all-hands general assembly and informed everyone of their plan. As John expected there were a lot of angry and fearful reactions. Alice couldn't blame them, she thought she'd shaken her nightmares of the Wraith but day after day listening to his threats and screams were enough to make them come back.

Alice was chewing on the end of her stylus, she turned her head as she heard the door open. John stepped through holding two cups of coffee. "Oh i honestly could kiss you." She took the cup gratefully from John who chuckled. She took a small sip letting the warm liquid flow down her throat. "Mmmm, thank you." She said over her mug.

"I may cash in that kiss soon." He winked at her and took a sip of his own drink and looked out the large windows down into the room. "What have i missed?"

"Well, he's awake." Alice tried to avoid a scowl as she watched Teyla talking with Michael. "At least Carson seemed to be right about the amnesia."

John grunted in agreement, narrowing his eyes down at the exchange happening between the doc and Teyla.

Alice looked over at the monitors. "Shit." She gulped down the rest of her coffee. "I'm late for a team leader update. I promised Rodney i wouldn't miss this one."

John held his hand out to take her mug. "We've got a debrief on Michael after this. I'll catch you up at lunch."

She mouthed a thank you and took off towards the labs. These updates were supposed to happen weekly so the R&D department knew the current status of all the research projects. She'd missed the last three, mainly because of off-world missions, and also because they were boring as dirt.

—

Alice walked slowly to the mess hall yawning as she went. Today's update had taken two hours, scientists really needed to learn what the difference between essential information and bragging was. Rodney was walking beside her, he was saying something about the change in the lunch menus and how he disapproved.

Alice groaned, she'd had her fill of moaning scientists. "For god sake Rodney, i couldn't care less if they changed the menus just stop complaining or i'll squeeze a lemon on your food."

Rodney looked taken back, his mouth hung open at her threat. "I hardly think that is necessary."

"I'll decide if it's necessary!" She scowled.

They walked over to grab their trays and joined the line of people getting their food. Rodney made sure to put a few people between her and him. She didn't care, it meant she could eat in peace. She shuffled forward in the line, grabbing a drink and plonking it onto her tray. Up ahead she could hear two scientists whispering in-front of her. "Look, he's over there. How could they let him roam around alone?"

Alice slammed a plate down hard on her tray. The two of them jumped slightly and turned to look at her. They quickly turned back around and closed their mouths when they saw Alice's glare. Once she was satisfied she'd shut them up, she turned to look at where they'd been gesturing.

Michael sat alone at a table, with his guards stood either side of him, eating his lunch. Alice looked in-front of her to see Rodney with his tablet out and his tray full heading for an empty table in the corner. He's eyes were narrowed, if Alice had to guess he had probably found a mistake in one of the scientists reports and was ruthlessly correcting and shaming them.

Alice steeled herself, she grabbed her tray and headed for Michael's table. "Afternoon Lieutenant, could I join you?"

Michael looked up at her with his piercing green eyes, his expression was surprised and guarded. He cleared his throat. "Yes. Of course."

Alice nodded to the guards and took the seat opposite Michael. An awkward silence fell over them, Alice didn't really know what she should say to him. "So...how are you feeling?" All her senses were alert, screaming at her to get away from him.

Michael pulled his brows together in a frown. "Fine, i guess. I still can't remember anything though."

Alice pursed her lips. "I'm sure it'll come back at some point." She lied, though silently she hoped he'd never remember.

Michael straightened up and let out a huff of air, when he looked at her he was smiling. "Sorry, I'm sure i know you, but i can't remember your name."

Alice looked at him blankly. "I'm so sorry, it totally slipped my mind." She winced, of all the things to say. "Sorry. I'm Alice Riley."

Michael smiled at her, if Alice was being honest with herself it made her skin crawl. In her mind she could still picture his yellow eyes and pale skin. "Alice Riley" He tapped his fork on the edge of his tray. "Yeah. I think i remember that." She tried to smile, but she was sure it came out more as a grimace.

She tried not to let him see her discomfort. "See there's hope for you yet." It took her a lot of effort to keep her tone light and friendly.

Michael continued to smile. "Did something happen to your face?" He pointed to her chin.

Alice lifted her hand to cover the bruising that was still present on her jaw. "Oh this..." she shuffled uncomfortably. "Y'know how it is on missions. Just had a rather unfriendly encounter." Her heart had sped up as she lied.

If he noticed, he didn't make it obvious. He stared at her with curiosity. "I'm sorry to hear that. I hope it doesn't bother you too much."

Alice shook her head and finally dropped her hand from her cheek. "It's fine now, pretty much painless."

Michael gave her a friendly smile. "I'm glad to hear it." He tapped his fork against his plate. "Were we friends?"

The question caught Alice off guard. Quickly she tried to remember the brief Carson had sent them all on Michael's background. According to the story, he would have joined the expedition when she returned to Atlantis. "We met on the trip over here. I had been back to Earth for a bit." She wracked her brain, how far did she want to go with this. His face looked slightly downcast, as though he was disappointed. Surprisingly, Alice felt a twinge of guilt and pity for him. "We got along pretty well. But you've been pretty busy settling in here, so we've not seen much of each other."

Michael's face lifted a bit. "Well I guess we'll just have to get re-acquainted. What do you do here?"

Alice took a bit of her food, but she was suddenly not very hungry. "I'm part of the research and development team."

Michael nodded thoughtfully. "You don't strike me as the scientist type, you seem more like a soldier."

Alice bit down on her lip. "Well you're almost right, i was a soldier. But recently completed my service." She was nervous about giving him too much details, SGA-1 was becoming well known within the Wraith factions. She was pretty sure most of the Wraith would at least be aware of her team, and the people on it. The last thing she wanted was to jog some repressed memory.

"So you're smart and deadly." He chuckled. "I like that."

Alice tried to smile back and laugh at his joke, but she wasn't a great actress and she was almost certain he'd be able to see through her facade.

"Ah. Lieutenant Kenmore." Rodney's voice sounded behind her. She let out a slight sigh of relief, it wasn't often she could say Rodney actually came to her rescue.

Michael looked up at him. "So they tell me. Call me Michael."

"Michael. Right, yes, of course. Michael." He shifted uncomfortably on the spot. Alice suddenly hoped she wasn't as obvious with her discomfort.

"I'm sorry. Um, I'm probably supposed to know you but ..." he looked expectantly at him.

"Right, right, the amnesia. Yes, of course, I heard." Rodney tapped his head animatedly, then he held out his right hand towards Michael. "I'm, uh, Doctor McKay." Michael wiped his hands on his pants. "Rodney McKay. Doctor." Rodney stumbled over his words, Alice winced at the exchange.

Michael stood up and took his hand, shaking it. However, as he shook it he looked down at Rodney's hand curiously. Alice clenched her jaw, tensing her whole body. She relaxed as Michael let go and returned to his seat.

"So, you've been, um, released, I see."

"Just now, but I have some bodyguards following me around everywhere, and Colonel Sheppard's probably somewhere close by. They wanna keep an eye on me in case I suddenly, um ... freak out." He looked dejectedly down at his tray.

Rodney gave a high pitched fake laugh. "Yes, freak out, yes." His smile faded. "Well, I don't think you're gonna ... you're not gonna ... You're fine, aren't you?"

"Of course he's fine Rodney." Alice interjected.

Michael looked at his hands. "I think so. I feel fine. I guess time will tell. Hopefully the amnesia won't be permanent."

Alice and Rodney shared a quick look. They both were thinking the same thing.

"Wraith materialiser schematics?" Michael pointed to the tablet in Rodney's hand.

Rodney blinked a couple of times and stuttered. "Yes. Yes, I was just, um ... just studying them, you know."

Alice narrowed her eyes. There was no way Michael should be able to recognise that from just a glance. Unless some part of his memory remained.

Michael looked puzzled. "How did I know that?"

"Um, one of your team's mission objectives was to, um, infiltrate, um ... a Wraith ship and obtain, um ..." he looked down at Alice panic clear on his face.

Alice shook her head. "Excuse the Doctor, i'm afraid he also suffers from a terrible memory when it's not about him." She tried to lighten the situation. "You're part of one of the off-world teams and you found a Wraith ship recently and decided to infiltrate and recover as much information from their database as possible."

Michael pressed his lips together, looking between Alice and Rodney. She silently hoped he would believe their story. "And our mission was successful?"

"Yes, very successful." Rodney said a bit too quickly.

"Except for getting captured." He muttered.

"Hey, it happens to the best of us." Alice shrugged and smiled. "I think all of us have been captured at one point or another, it's just part of the gig."

Michael gave Alice a warm smile. "Well, um, I guess I'd better be going. Doctor Beckett wants me back every few hours."

"Right. You got it." Rodney said nervously.

"It was nice to catch up Michael." Alice said, hoping he would believe her.

He definitely seemed to brighten slightly at her words. He held his hand up in a small wave. "See ya."

Alice watched him walk away, Rodney stayed standing next to her. When Michael was out of sight, Alice turned and slapped Rodney on the arm.

"Ow!" He complained.

"Oh great job Doctor McKay." Alice glared at him, as he rubbed his arm pathetically. "We seriously need to work on your acting skills."

—-

Alice sat on the edge of John's bed, pulling her hair up into a messy bun. "He only saw his screen for a split second, but he knew they were Wraith blue prints. I'm not sure his memory is fully gone."

John was stood in the doorway of the bathroom a toothbrush in her mouth. Alice tried to ignore the fact he was standing there shirtless with his cargo pants resting low enough on his hips she could see the V shape of his stomach. He was looking at her with a caculating expression. "Hmm." Was all he said.

Alice started kicking off her boots now. "He also said he recognised my name..." she trailed off. She had debated about whether to tel John about that. He was the type to get protective.

"I'll double the security rotation on him. The last thing we need is him going after you." John turned and marched back into the bathroom, but not before Alice saw his fingers clenched into a fist and his knuckles turning white against his toothbrush.

"I'm sure it's fine. I'll mention it to Carson, he probably just recognises me from the observation window." She laid back down on the bed, biting her lip. It hadn't been a great idea to tell him, but it was the right thing to do. And she still felt like she was making up for putting herself in the infirmary.

John reappeared in the doorway, minus a toothbrush this time, deep lines crossed his forehead as he rubbed it. Alice could tell he was already over-analysing the situation. "I don't want you alone with him."

"He's guarded 24/7 John, I couldn't be alone with him even if i tried." She smiled, trying to lighten the mood. "Come here" she patted the space next to her on the bed. He didn't move, his eyes seemed a thousand miles away. She waited for a minute and then stood up, crossing the room to put her arms his neck. "You need to stop worrying about me, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself."

John's eyes finally focused on her, his body relaxed under her touch. He brought his hand up behind her neck pulling her into his body. "I know, I just can't stand the thought of something happening to you. I love you Riles."

"I love you too. Now, stop worrying and come to bed." She pulled back to place a kiss on his lips. She felt him wrap his other arm around her and start leading her back towards the bed.

—

The next few days were rather uneventful, most things had gone back to normal. Alice was once again locked up in the Jumper bay trying to figure out more about the Ancients engine and cloaking technology. As always, the ultimate goal would be to understand it enough to be able to design and build their own version - but they were still a long way from this.

They'd done a couple of small missions, mostly resupplies, but mostly the team had been focusing on their own responsibilities within the city.

That meant once again, Alice had her head down in the schematics of the jumper. Her headphones were plugged in so she could concentrate. She scratched her forehead, the Ancients were brilliant engineers, it had been weeks and Alice felt like she was no closer to figuring out how to build their own cloaking device. She grabbed her ipod and cranked up the volume, trying to force herself to focus on the problem in front of her.

She started tapping her foot to the beat and placed her stylus in her mouth, humming along to the beat of the music. A small flash of movement flickered in the corner of her eye, but she figured she was seeing things. Pulling her stylus out she picked up her tablet, deciding she needed to be facing the systems she was looking at.

As she spun around she cried out in shock and her tablet slipped out of her hands. Her heart felt like it was going to beat out of her chest, Michael was stood directly in front of her, only a few inches from her face. She ripped out her earphones. "Sorry, i didn't hear you come in." She gasped as Michael bent down to grab her fallen tablet.

"I didn't mean to scare you." He said in his overly friendly tone.

"That's okay. What. What are you doing up here?" Alice looked around trying to spot Michael's guard. He was standing a reasonable distance away, but his hand was gripping his gun.

"Riles!?" Alice recognised John's voice calling out as she heard his boots clanging on the steps. She checked her watch, she realised it was past the time she said she would meet him and the team at the mess hall, he'd probably come to check where she it.

She cleared her throat and took the tablet off Michael. "Thanks." John appeared at the top of the stairs looking ready for a fight. "I'm okay, just scared myself." She tried to steady her voice.

John narrowed his eyes as he looked at her. Trying to see if she was telling the truth, he'd been keeping a closer eye on her since she told him about her last conversation with Michael. "Okay." He hesitated, she could tell he was trying to decide if he should come over or not. Alice nodded subtly, he took the hint started turning back to the stairs. "You still okay for lunch?" He asked.

She smiled sweetly. "Of course, i'll meet you there in a bit. Save me a seat."

John nodded and disappeared back down the stairs though she could see the strain in his face before he left. He didn't like the idea of them being alone. Alice blew a strand out of hair out of her face and turned back to Michael. "Sorry, what did you want to ask me?"

Michael's eyes were fixed on where John had just disappeared. "I wouldn't have guessed that." He murmured softly.

"Sorry?" Alice knitted her brows together in confusion.

Michael seemed to break out of his trance and his expression turned open and friendly. "Teyla told me i'd find you up here. I was going to ask of you wanted to join me for lunch, but nevermind."

If Alice didn't know Michael wasn't fully human she would have said he looked embarrassed. She blinked a few times, her mind trying to make sense of what was happening. "You're welcome to join us." She said, awkwardly swaying on the spot.

"That's okay. I'm sure you and the Colonel would prefer some space." Alice thought she could hear a slight twinge of malice in his voice as he talked about John. But his smile was still plastered on his face.

Alice looked down at the tablet in her hand. "Well if there's something you want to talk about I'm all ears. You can walk me to the mess hall?"

Michael nodded. "That would be nice, thank you."

Alice gestured to Michael's guard, as they headed towards the staircase. "So, what did you want to talk about?" Michael followed alongside her.

"I wanted to ask you about me, you said we met on the Daedalus on the journey here. What did we talk about?"

Alice hesitated, the background they'd put together wasn't air tight. She hadn't expected him to want to go into this much detail. "Um...well...we talked." She silently cursed herself. She was as bad as Rodney. She quickly thought back to the conversations she'd had with people on board during the long three week journey. "Mostly you asked me about Atlantis. What life was like here, what to expect. Pretty normal for new personnel." She rubbed her thumb up and down the side of her index finger

He nodded but she wan't sure if he trusted her words or not. He was silent for a few minutes, Alice could see his eyes darting back and forth as he thought of what to ask next. "I..." he stopped reconsidering his words. "No one here seems to trust me. Did the Wraith do something to me? Do they have that power?" His voice cracked slightly, he sounded broken, defeated.

Alice swallowed, she didn't know how to answer him. She stopped walking, hesitantly, she reached out her hand to touch his. "Honestly, i don't know what they did. And people. Majority of the people here are scientists, they've never been through what our off-world teams go through, they don't understand what it's like." She gave his hand a reassuring squeeze, she felt a pit in her stomach, she found herself feeling guilty again for lying to him. "Give them time."

Michael twisted his hand so it was grabbing hers, his grip was tight as he looked at their hands together. Alice examined his face but she couldn't make out what he was thinking. "Thank you, I really appreciate your kindness." He let go of her hand and she pulled it back towards herself.

She smiled and started walking, the door to the mess hall was just ahead of them. "Anytime. I'm sorry, but I need to get going. But if there's anything you need..." she trailed off. Michael was looking over the balcony with the same guarded expression.

Michael and his escorted headed back into the city, whilst Alice walked through the doors and joined the table with her friends. She started thinking about the implications of what they've done. "Riles...Riles!" she jumped as she realised John was saying her name. "Hey. You okay?" John was looking at her concerned.

Alice looked at him blankly. "Sorry I must've been lost in my own world."

But John didn't seem to buy it. "What's going on?"

Teyla seemed to pick up the fact they wanted to talk more privately and started talking loudly about an upcoming Athosian festival they were all being invited to. Alice made a mental note to thank her friend later. She leaned in closer to John, keeping her voice low. "Are we doing the right thing? Cause I'm not sure it feels right anymore."

John chewed on his lip. "Riles, we all knew what we were doing."

Alice dropped her hands to her side. "I know, but i didn't expect him to be so..."

"Human?" John offered.

Alice nodded. "If i didn't know better I would say he was no different to everyone else here on the base."

John reached out and grabbed her hand, pulling it over so it rested on his lap. "Finding out the truth now would break any trust we've built with him. We just have to keep going, hopefully he'll settle in over the next few days." He rubbed his thumb over her skin, sending small tingles up her arm.

"And if he doesn't..." Alice knew it wasn't a question. If he didn't settle in or started resisting them, he would have to be handled. She took in a deep breath. "I hope we're doing the right thing." John nodded absently next to her.

—

Alice was gently dozing in and out of sleep. John's fingers were drawing shapes over her back, the motion calmed her dreams and helped her sleep.

"Shit." John's fingers stopped moving and he was out of bed in seconds. Alice became instantly alert, her head shot up to see John hastily pulling on his pants and shirt.

"What's going on?!" She asked with wide eyes.

"Michael." He said simply. "He's found out the truth."

Alice felt her stomach drop. She threw the covers off and started getting dressed as well. "I'm coming with you."

"No." John ordered instantly. "Wake up Teyla, Ronon and Rodney and get them into the conference room. I'll meet you there."

Without another word they both had their weapons holstered and were racing out the door of her quarters.

—-

It didn't take long for Alice to round up the team. Other than Rodney, they were all light sleepers, one knock on the door and they were up and ready to go. And as usual Rodney took a bit longer but after a bit of stumbling around even he was ready.

They'd waited for Elizabeth, John and Carson to join them in the conference room, it had't taken them too long before the sliding doors twisted and they walked in all wearing a solemn look on their faces.

Carson explained what had happened and Elizabeth finished by filling them in on Michael's reaction.

"This whole thing was a bad idea." There was no satisfaction in Ronon's voice. But a dark clarity.

"No, it wasn't." John argued back. "The retrovirus works - that much is clear. Just look at the guy." Ronon narrowed his eyes at John. "If we can figure out how to deploy this as a biological weapon, it's possible that we can hit entire hive ships and turn them into humans."

Carson stepped forward holding his hands up. "That's still a ways off, and I've yet to develop an effective long term dose to keep the Wraith elements suppressed for a lifetime."

"But the point is, we are getting closer." Elizabeth said defensively.

"You know, you may be able to make him look like a human, talk like a human, but he'll still be a Wraith. Nothing you do will ever change that." Once again Ronon stormed out of the conference room.

Silence hung in the air after abrupt Ronon's departure. Alice glanced around at John and Elizabeth. "I hate to say it..." she cringed. "But Ronon has a point. It's unlikely Michael would have ever been able to fully integrate into life here, everyone's scared of him for good reason too. We're trying to forcefully change his nature, no matter what we do his body is always going to try to change back." Alice stood up. "I don't think we were wrong to try." She looked pointedly at Carson and Elizabeth. "But I think it's time to treat this as what it is." Alice kept her eyes on Elizabeth, judging her reaction. She twitched nervously, when she was still a Captain she never would have criticised the plan so openly.

"I need time to consider our options." Elizabeth said finally. Alice pursed her lips and moved to leave the room. "John and Carson please stay."

Alice shot John a look that told him to find her later, and with that she left the room with Teyla and Rodney.

Alice watched Teyla head towards Michael's room. She knew Teyla had formed a tentative friendship with Michael, and being the more emotionally savvy one in the team, it didn't surprise her she'd want to go check on him.

Alice had to clear her mind. She felt conflicted over what they'd discussed, and the only place she could really feel like she could do that was her favourite quiet spot on the balcony of the south pier.

—

Alice had walked past Michael's quarters multiple times, she felt like she owed him an apology or at least an explanation. But John had warned her to stay away, apparently Michael had really not taken the news well, and they were all waiting for signs of him regressing.

However, Alice couldn't lose the heavy feeling of guilt that sat in the pit of her stomach. If Michael was ever going to be on their side, surely this was the time to reach out to him rather than isolate him further. She saw Sergeant Cole standing guard, she rocked back and forth on her feet trying to work up the nerve.

Finally she squeezed her fists tightly together and walked forward determinedly. "Hey Cap!" Cole smiled at her. He'd been one of her last batch of recruits before she'd left back home, and no matter how many times she told him he refused to call her anything else.

"Hey Cole, how's he doing?" She peered past him trying to see through the door if she could see Michael.

"Grouchy." Cole said bluntly.

"Right." Alice said awkwardly. "Well I need to go through and have a word to him." She clapped her hands together and tried to to confidently stride past him.

Cole held out his arm to stop her. "Has this been authorised by the Colonel?"

Alice gave him her best smile. "Of course, you think I of all people would go behind his back." She raised an eyebrow at him as he considered her face. She knew John and her were still one of the biggest topics of gossip amongst the military personnel. Nothing else that scandalous had happened to replace them yet. She silently pleaded in her head for him to believe her.

"Okay, but five minutes tops." He pulled his arm back and returned to his relaxed position with his hands gently resting on his gun.

"Thanks Cole." She drew in a breath and walked through the door.

The room was dark, she stopped in the doorway waiting for her eyes to adjust. She knew their were more guards a few doors down monitoring her on camera. "Michael?" She called hesitantly into the darkness.

"I was wondering if you'd come..." his voice was deeper than before, with an edge of danger.

Alice steeled herself. "Of course." She stepped towards where his voice had come from.

"Michael, I'm not here to apologize." Michael started cackling. "We did what we had to. But what you do know is completely in your hands. If you want a future here among us then that's entirely up to you. We could be friends, we could still help each other"

"Can we now?" Alice had to stop herself jumping back as Michael appeared in front of her as if materialising from the shadows. "Don't pretend like you're anything more than my captor. You don't care about me, you only care about yourselves. I could never have a future here." Michael sneered at her. "Your boyfriend and his minions have made that very clear."

Alice bit her bottom lip. "I'm sorry to hear that. I guess there's nothing more to say then." She held Michael's gaze then turned around and headed back to the door. She paused. "Y'know for a moment there i really did think we could have been friends." Alice turned and strode out of the room. "He's all yours Cole."

"See ya Cap." Cole called after her. She thought he'd said something else, but she was too far at that point to make it out.

She didn't know where she was going, blood rushed in her ears and she felt like putting her fist through the nearest wall. She wasn't sure who she was angrier at; Herself for letting Michael under her skin and bringing him here in the first place, or Elizabeth and Carson for going ahead with the plan.

She was just about to step into the transporter when the panicked voice of Cole sprouted through the radio. "This is Sergeant Cole. Kenmore's escaped. Level five, east tower. Ronon's also in pursuit."

"Shit!" Alice actually punched the wall this time. Then turned and headed for the nearest armoury. She tapped her radio as she ran. "Riley reporting in, I'm going after Michael." Alice grabbed a P90 off the shelf and a wraith stunner then ran off back towards Michael's room.

She had to find him before Ronon did.

"Riles, we're in the corridor below you." John reported in through the radio.

"Coming to you." She grabbed the railing of the nearest staircase and threw herself down jumping down the stairs as quickly as she could.

John and Teyla met her at the bottom. Together they headed down the corridor, John and Alice taking point. They were moving slowly, until they heard gunshots echoing down the corridor. John picked up his pace, ahead of them they saw Cole on the floor with Michael squatting over him. Ronon was sneaking up behind him. John gestured for Alice and Teyla to move behind him. Alice obeyed without question, moving so she was inline with Teyla.

Alice could see Ronon's blaster aimed at Michael's head. She knew John wouldn't let Ronon kill him, but it was hard to just stand back and watch. She heard the familiar sound of the stunner firing and Michael convulsed dropping to the ground.

John ran forward to grab Ronon's gun. "Riles. Check Cole." Alice was already on his heels.

She dropped to her knees and looked over Cole's chest, his clothes were mattered with blood and his eyes were closed. "No. No . No...please." She placed her fingers against his neck. Nothing. She dropped her head onto his chest and hovered her hand over his mouth. Ignoring the warm blood sticking to her face. She listened for anything, but there was still nothing. She lifted her head and looked at John, her voice catching in her throat. "He's dead."

Alice stared down at Cole's lifeless body, it was her fault he was dead. It was her decision to capture Michael, if she'd just stuck to the mission he would have been blown up with that facility. "Riles. Come on." John had his hand under her arm, pulling her up so Carson and his team could start prepping Cole's body.

John led her back to her room, Alice went straight to the bathroom. She started washing her hands, when she caught sight of at herself in the mirror. Her hair on the right side of her face was matted with Cole's dried blood. Making her light chestnut brown hair almost black. Blood also caked her cheek and forehead, she stared at her reflection. This wasn't the first time she'd been covered in the blood of a friend, and she knew it also wouldn't be the last. Cupping her hands she splashed water onto her face, scrubbing hard to remove all the traces of blood.

She coughed, letting out a shaky breath. "Keep it together Riley." She chided herself. But images of Cole's body flashed in her head. Tears made her eyes burn. She felt hands rubbing her back and John gently soothing her as dry tears wracked her body.

—

Alice sat quietly in one of the chairs at the back of the conference room. They were trying to decide what to do with Michael. Alice pulled a loose strand of hair, it still felt dry and matted, as though there was still blood clinging to it.

"We can't keep him here, even locked up. It's too dangerous." Elizabeth paced the room.

"We can take him to the Alpha site. We'll sedate him first so he won't know where it is." John had one leg crossed over the other and was lightly swaying his chair from side to side.

"And then what?" Ronon sounded unimpressed.

"Continue with the drug treatments." Elizabeth said confidently.

Ronon smiled bitterly at her. "Continue?"

"Doctor Beckett was about to start increasing the dosage. Hopefully that will be effective in eliminating any remaining Wraith impulses."

"Why are we even talking about this? He killed one of your people." He slammed his hands down on the table and glared at their leader. "Your experiment didn't work. We should kill him right now."

"We can't kill him, Ronon." Kate Heightmeyer said calmly in her best therapist voice. "We're the ones who put him in this position."

John dropped his leg. "Hold on a minute, Doc. If we hadn't given him the retrovirus, he'd still be a Wraith. We wouldn't think twice about killing him."

"But we did give him the retrovirus. We made him human. Now we have the responsibility to treat him as we would any other ..." Teyla reasoned.

"He's not human. He's a Wraith." Ronon interrupted.

Alice swayed lightly in her chair, still twirling her hair, observing the other argue in front of her.

Elizabeth turned to Carson. "Carson, what do you think? Is it worth continuing with these treatments?"

Carson stammered. "I, uh ... I don't know. I ... suppose it's worth seeing how he fares with the increased dosage."

Elizabeth nodded. "I agree. We've come too far with this just to abandon it now."

Ronon continued to glare at her bitterly. Carson stepped awkwardly past him looking anguished.

Alice stayed sitting in her seat. Her mind buzzing with their words. She didn't want them to continue the experiment, in her mind they'd tried and failed. Internally she wanted to scream for revenge, for Michael to pay for what he did to her friend. But if she did then Cole really did die for nothing. There had to be more they could learn, even if it means strapping Michael to a table and dissecting him.

"Riles?" John sat down in the chair next to her, his hand stretching out and resting on her thigh. "We're getting ready to head to the alpha site, do you..."

Alice was already shaking her head. She looked at John straight in the eye. "If i see him, i'll kill him." She stood up and strode out of the room. She needed fresh air, the tang of Cole's blood was filling her senses. The same smell also reminded her of our own guilt in this situation. If it wasn't for her, then Michael wouldn't be here and Cole wouldn't be dead.

—

Alice waited for news on her team on the control room balcony. Although she couldn't bring herself to go on the mission she wanted to be close by in case anything happened. Though she knew John had been slightly relieved she wasn't going, not that he'd ever admit that.

20 minutes ago her fears had come true. Teyla had been taken hostage by Michael and they'd headed off planet. Alice and Rodney had been prepped and ready to go to help but John had ordered them to stay behind. All she could do now was wait.

She had bitten her nails down so far a couple of them had started bleeding. Waiting for news was killing her. She's known it was dangerous and she hated herself for not going along in the first place.

The balcony door opened and Alice whipped her head around to see Chuck. "They've just dialled in. She's safe. They'll be stepping through any second."

Alice ran past him and into the control room. Below her through the open gate John, Ronon and Teyla were stepping through the blue puddle. "Oh thank god." She held her hand over her heart and grinned as she saw her Athosian friend without a scratch on her. Alice threw herself down the stairs and straight onto her friend. "Are you okay?!"

"Yes. I am very well." Teyla smiled back at her. "Thank you for your concern."

Alice kept Teyla wrapped in her embrace, she wasn't sure she could take losing another friend so soon. "I'm so glad you're back."


	23. Chapter 23

**A/N We're getting closer to one of my all time favourite episodes!**

 **And I asked a while back, but in the next few chapters we'll finally get a chapter from John's POV.**

 **Thank you again to everyone who has read and reviewed my story! Happy reading.**

—————

Alice stood looking out the giant observation window of the Taranan control room. They were being given a tour of the facility by a Doctor Norina Pero. It was impressive to say the least, though obviously not their design. Before they'd even stepped foot on the planet they knew it had once been home to a Lantean science outpost. Though long since abandoned - or so they thought, until they'd received a distress call a little over a week ago.

They'd sat down in the conference room and debated what to do, was it worth putting the city at risk again so soon. From the moment she'd heard it though Alice knew she wanted to help, and it hadn't taken much for her to convince John. If they had the means to help, then why shouldn't they. It could mean the difference between life and death for these people. Like her, the others agreed and so they put it some adequate security precautions and finally headed through to meet the Taranians.

Alice looked away from the window back over to their guide, who was still talking about the architecture of the facility. It wasn't hard to notice, but Dr Pero was absolutely stunning, she had long blonde hair that ended in soft curls that lightly dangled over her lab coat. She looked like she'd walked straight of the cover of some glamorous fashion magazine.

So it didn't entirely surprise her to see John and Rodney both staring obviously at Doctor Pero.

"Impressive!" John remarked. Alice rolled her eyes, if she'd had an Intar on her she would have shot him and Rodney. Neither of them had any tact what so ever when it came to women. The whole tour they'd been not to subtly leering at their host.

Oblivious to their attention, Norina turned away from the window and gestured into the room. "This is our central Control Room." She announced proudly, stepping forward to lead them towards one of the consoles. Alice and Teyla both let out a breathy laugh as the boys followed eagerly.

Alice quickly stepped in line behind John, close enough so she could whisper in his ear. "Glad you were enjoying the view so much. But try making it less obvious." She felt him stiffen slightly, she couldn't help but smile.

Norina, oblivious to their conversation, turned and smiled proudly. "And this is our shield generator control." There were a few controls Alice recognised from the Atlantis panels, but there were others that she had never seen before.

"The austerity of the facility suggests that it was built during the height of war." Rodney said with an air of arrogance, trying his best to sound impressive. Alice had to resist punching him, though from the look on Teyla's face she could tell she might not get there first.

"It is well beyond our science. My skills are rudimentary at best." Norina admitted earnestly. Alice had to admit she liked this woman, she was brilliant. Not many civilisations had developed this much to be able to use, let alone understand, Ancient technology.

"Ah, don't be so hard on yourself. It took Doctor McKay years to figure out all things Ancient and he still doesn't completely understand." John had a cocky grin on his face as he finally pulled his gaze away from Norina and looked at Rodney. Alice pinched the bridge of her nose, she knew exactly what was about to start.

And just as expected, Rodney took the bait. "I have a very firm grasp of Ancient technology." He said defensively.

"You've blow up entire planets, Rodney." John countered, mischief gleaming in his eyes.

"That wasn't my fault!"

"Well, it didn't do it by itself!" Alice was half expecting John to stick out his tongue and Rodney to start crying. The men on her team, apart from Ronon -who generally looked disinterested when there was no one to pummel- were such children.

An older man walked over to them. "Are these our guests?"

Norina dropped her head respectfully. "Yes, Chancellor." She waved her hand across the team in turn as she introduced them. "Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard, Doctors Rodney McKay and Alice Riley, Teyla Emmagan, and Ronon Dex. Chancellor Lycus.

The Chancellor had a warm smile. "Welcome to Taranis."

John copied Norina's head bow. "Thank you." As much as he said he hated politics, he was more adept at it than he gave himself credit for.

"And thank you for finally answering our calls for assistance. We tried several addresses from the database but were beginning to wonder if anyone could hear us."

John cast an awkward glance around the team. "Sorry about that. Um, we like to keep a low profile."

Teyla bowed her head and stepped forward. "So as not to attract the attention of the Wraith."

"I see. Well, hopefully you can help us. Our shield generator has been giving us trouble for some time now. Our knowledge of the technology is limited, and the Ancestors regrettably neglected to leave behind instruction manuals." The Chancellor explained.

Rodney laughed derisively. "Actually, they did. You probably just couldn't understand ..."

John cleared his throat and deliberately started talking over Rodney. "The good news is you found our address. I'm sure we can fix whatever needs fixing."

"And by "we", he means me, so ..." he reached behind him and pulled out his laptop. "shall we get started?"

"I'm sure I could learn a lot from you, Doctor." Norina smiled at Rodney.

Alice rolled her eyes, of course Rodney was always the only one who could solve the technical problem.

Rodney looked startled. "Oh! Well, I'm sure I can learn, um ..." He trailed off, embarrassed, while Ronon grinned at him. He tried to straighten up and ignore the rest of the team's snickers. "Let's start here, shall we?" He pointed to the shield generator control console.

"Sounds great Rodney!" Alice said overly cheerfully, pulling her own tablet from her pack and walking towards the console. She didn't miss the drop on Rodney's face as she joined them. Norina, however, was beaming as she walked over to join them.

"You two behave!" John called out as the Chancellor led them out one of the doors to tour the rest of the facility.

"You're one to talk." Alice yelled back, her head already underneath the console to plug in her tablet.

Unlike Rodney, Alice talked Norina through all the actions she was doing to understand the different controls and identifying different words in Ancient. To her credit, Norina was able to keep up and could already fill Alice in on some bits she'd never seen before.

Alice lifted her tablet up, staring at the screen curiously. "Rodney..." before she could finish a light tremor started shaking the room. Before she could even blink Rodney had dashed across the room and was standing braced in the doorway.

Norina's head snapped up and stared at Rodney.

"That was harmonic tremors." Rodney looked up and down at the wall. His hands still bracing himself.

Norina nodded her head. "We've experienced several such tremors in recent days. I'm concerned they may have something to do with our generator problems."

Rodney finally satisfied the ground wasn't going to shake again started walking back over to them. "Well, you say your generator is powered by geothermal energy?"

"Yes."

"Well, then I'd say there's probably a connection." Rodney snatched his tablet from where he'd dropped it on the console.

Norina looked between Alice and Rodney, then pointed at the door. "What were you doing?"

"Well, that, that was, uh, that was the ... standard military procedure. In the case of an earthquake, one hides ... uh, well, stands in a doorway and, uh, just checks the ... structural integrity of the building ... for the sake of the civilians." Rodney's entire face flushed red.

Alice snorted and laughed, then seeing the look Rodney was giving her tried to cover it with a cough. Norina was looking at her expectantly. "Uh...yeah, common practice on Earth. I guess I just don't have Rodney's lightening fast reflexes." She'd tried to keep a straight face while saying it but she'd broken out into a huge grin and was just barely managing to contain her laughter.

Rodney gave her a dead pan look and went back to his tablet. Alice looked back down at her own readings, she couldn't quite tell yet, but these weren't what she was expecting to see. They had data from when Atlantis' shields were active and the readings from the Taranians' shield were very different. This could just be down to the fact it's powered by geo-thermal energy rather than a ZPM.

"Riles." Alice looked up to see John walking over towards her. She stood up and put her tablet down. Norina shifted over so she could watch over Rodney's shoulder. "They've got an Aurora-class ship." Alice's jaw dropped, but John kept talking before she could say anything. "I'm heading back to report into Elizabeth. Stay here and focus on the shield generator." Alice furrowed her brow and started talking. "I know, i know. I owe you a space gun, so you get dibs." Alice smiled at him, she loved he could read her so well. He looked over at Rodney. "McKay! We're heading back to report in."

Rodney looked up and then at Norina. "Well, this is going to take a while so take your time." He said a little too enthusiastically.

Alice rolled her eyes. "See you later."

"Enjoy." John smiled and patted her on the shoulder before heading out towards the gate.

————-

Alice had her head down reviewing the readings. Rodney was stood down with Norina and some of her colleagues. Showing off as usual. Since John left all he'd done was attempt to big himself up and sweet talk Norina. Not that it was working. Alice however was making progress, she'd managed to run a full diagnostic and was resetting the system to bring up the correct warnings, so they could see what was happening. Since Rodney was busy she'd commandeered his laptop to run the systems check faster.

She looked over to Rodney. Norina was leaning in close, attentive to what he was saying. Alice huffed to herself, seems like Rodney might actually stand a chance here. Just then Rodney's laptop started beeping.

Alice slid her chair across and watched as the screen downloaded its findings, the screen filled with Ancient script, it would take a few more seconds for the translator software to kick in, there was a lot of data for it to process.

"How goes it, Rodney?" Alice lifted her head to see John walking in with a large case. He had an amused look in his eye as Rodney quickly straightened up from where he'd been resting on the console.

"Uh, I was just, uh, still running diagnostics." He stammered.

"You mean, i was running diagnostics." Alice stood up. Her face was slightly grim. "And you need to look at this."

Rodney's face fell as he noticed her expression.

"Still? Thought you would have had that fixed." John placed the case down onto a table.

Rodney clicked his fingers and instead of coming over to Alice, walked over to where John had put the case. She watched as the two of them whispered in hushed tones. "Rodney! You need to look at this." She sharpened her tone.

Rodney took a step back, but it looked like John had said something to get under his skin. "Uh, no-no-no. I was just about to, uh, show Norina the generator log which, uh, shows that, uh ..."

Alice dropped her head, she knew exactly what he was about to see. "They've been running the shield non-stop for a year." She looked up and crossed her arms over her chest, turning her gaze on Norina.

Norina shuffled uncomfortably under Alice's stare. "Yes. When the device was activated ..." she looked at John "... you told me what it was called ..."

Rodney finished for her. "The long range scanners -- that's just what we call them."

"It's from an old TV show ..." John added, smiling knowing how much it would annoy Rodney.

"Yes, yes." He waved his hand dismissively at John, then turned to Norina. "What about them?"

"When they indicated a sudden rise in Wraith activity last year, Chancellor Lycus ordered me to increase the strength of the shield." She explained, her voice growing slightly less confident.

"Well, that's unfortunate." Rodney muttered.

Norina looked around at them for an explanation. "Why?"

Alice decided to step in this time. "Because the Ancients didn't design their shields to be constantly active for long periods of time. Especially not at their maximum."

Rodney walked towards Alice and picked up another laptop and took it over to another console. John just shrugged at Norina.

"Look, shields are for emergencies only, Norina. When you shut down the alarms, you overrode the failsafes and that means that we're ..." He switched the laptop on and his face dropped. All the color seemed to drain out of his face. "Oh, no." Alice raced over to look at the findings.

"What it is?" Norina and John followed her lead only moving slower.

Alice stared down at the screen and knew what had made the color leave Rodney's face.

"The reason the Ancients chose to power this facility on geothermal energy is because we're sitting right smack in the caldera of a dormant supervolcano ... or should I say formerly dormant, because drawing all of this energy from the magma chamber has made it extremely active." Rodney showed the screen to Norina, but Alice wasn't sure how much the data would mean to her.

"So -- things are gonna get worse." John had a slightly pained expression, he looked directly at Alice for an answer.

She took in a short breath. "Yeah, it's gonna get really bad." She didn't want to say more in front of Norina, but what she saw from the data was the caldera of this volcano was bigger than Yellowstone. Which meant an eruption would be an extinction level event.

John seemed to read the extent of the problem in her face. Immediately he tapped his radio. "Elizabeth?" He paused, letting her respond. "You and the Chancellor may want to come down to the Control Room. We have a problem here." Alice's computer started beeping, then the entire complex started staking violently. "That kind of problem!" He said answering Elizabeth.

Rodney started working frantically on his laptop. Alice stood up and touched John's arm, leading him just out of earshot. "We need to get these people out of here. This is going to be big, and it's happening quickly." She whispered in a hushed tone.

John nodded grimly and placed his hand gently on her arm. "I'll do what I can Riles."

———

It didn't take long for Elizabeth and Chancellor Lycus to join them. Rodney had just finished explaining their findings and the result.

Elizabeth had wandered up to the large observation windows and stared out across the planet. "I don't see any volcano."

"Because you're standing inside it right now. Look, when you think of regular volcanoes, you think Mount St Helens." He held his hands up in a little triangle shape. "or, uh, Kilauea."

Elizabeth cocked an eyebrow at him. "And supervolcano?"

"Think Yellowstone." Alice was leaning against one of the consoles with her arms crossed in front of her. "A fifty mile wide caldera."

"So the Ancients built the facility here in order to tap into all that geothermal energy." Elizabeth stepped away from the window towards the group.

Rodney nodded. "Right. And these things don't erupt very often. Thousands, oftentimes hundreds of thousands of years go by between blasts."

"So the Ancients thought, what the hell, plenty of energy down there to run the shield?" John chimed in, Alice shot him a hard look - so much for doing what he could.

"Yeah, but not continuously." Rodney said exasperatedly. Alice could tell he was getting frustrated the others didn't understand the magnitude of what was about to happen.

Norina turned to the Chancellor. "By doing so, we've increased the pressure of the magma chamber."

Alice twisted around to grab her tablet, on it a simulated planet showed a volcano and magma chamber expansion. "From what we can tell it's already expanded to over forty miles now, and it's still increasing."

Elizabeth took in a breath, a million thoughts seemed to be going through her head. "Can it be stopped?" She said finally.

Rodney and Alice exchanged grim looks. "No." They said together.

"The damage has already done." Alice hoped the severity of this was starting to sink in. "And we don't have much time left."

"Look" Rodney said impatiently. "A significant hotspot rift has opened. The pressure will keep building as magma continues pouring in directly beneath us."

"Is there anything we can do to relieve the pressure somewhere else?" John's eyes flicked around the room, as though looking for a solution on one of the console tables. "Uh, maybe we can fire a drone down into the crust on the other side of the caldera."

"Every problem has a military solution in your world, doesn't it? Look, when this baby goes, the whole thing goes." Rodney grumbled irritably.

John's face turned stoney, he looked at the Chancellor. "Then we need to evacuate your people."

"Is there anywhere on this planet we can help relocate you to?" Elizabeth asked.

"That's not going to be enough." Alice tried to put a bit more force into her words.

Rodney snapped. "Look, you're still not getting it. Listen to me, all of you. When this thing erupts, the force of the explosion will be over ten thousand times greater than the blast that destroyed Mount St Helens. It will obliterate half of this continent."

"There must be other continents." Elizabeth countered.

Alice shook her head. "The ash that's going to kick up from this eruption will cover the planet in a matter of weeks." She looked at the Chancellor. "It will block out all sunlight and kill everything. Nothing will survive. We have to get your people off this planet. And we have to do it now!" She tried to put as much urgency in her voice as possible.

Lycus looked at them all for a moment. Alice couldn't tell if he really believed them or not. "Excuse me." He turned to leave the room, pausing to talk quietly to a guard. Then left.

The guard stood at attention and kept his eyes glued to them. Alice stifled a groan, he didn't believe them.

"Oh, I'm sorry, was my volume turned right down?!" Rodney yelled after the Chancellor. "Did he not hear us?!" He said incredulously to her and John.

Alice looked around at the others, unsure of what the plan was now. Rodney was muttering things under his breath. John looked ready to plan a coup and Elizabeth slowly paced back and forth in front of the window. "I'm going to talk the the Chancellor." She announced, and before anyone could say anything walked purposefully over to the guard. "I need to speak with Chancellor Lycus now."

Alice strode over to John. "We have to get him to understand."

"Elizabeth will do what she can. But we can't help everyone Riles, especially if they don't want it."

"That's not good enough!" She hadn't realised she'd raised her voice when all the chattering around them stopped.

John looked around them awkwardly. "Sorry folks, go back to your business." He grabbed Alice's arm and dragged her across to the window. "What's gotten into you!" He kept his voice low so the others couldn't hear.

"I'm sick of doing nothing, we have the power to help these people. I can't just let them die." Alice almost growled at him.

"We can't do force our help on anyone." He released his grip on her arm. "Whatever happens, we follow orders. Whether we like it or not."

Before she could argue back, the complex shook violently, Alice and John braced themselves against the window frames. Equipment fell from the tables and cracks started forming across the ceiling. The earthquakes were definitely getting increasingly stronger. A few seconds later the shaking stopped.

"Is everyone alright?" Elizabeth raced back into the room followed by the Chancellor.

Alice and John had both rushed to the side of a Taranan technician was sitting on the steps clutching his head. Alice nodded. "I've got this." She took gauze from her tac vest and held it to the man's head.

"Nasty cut on his forehead." John reported to Elizabeth.

Norina was back at the controls, lights and alarms were flashing around her. "Reports of the wounded are coming in from the settlement."

"I'll call Beckett -- get him up here." Elizabeth tapped her radio.

Rodney stood on the other side of Alice, looking out at the caldera. "You'd better make it quick. The last tremor opened a hydrothermal vent in the base. The ground is eroding beneath us."

Alice finished wrapping the man's head, he wasn't in danger of bleeding out but he'd need to get checked out by the medics for a concussion.

She stood up and joined Rodney, from their vantage point she could see several large plumes of smoke and ash pouring out of the ground.

"You need to get your people off this planet now." John repeated to the Chancellor, more forcefully this time.

"They can come to Atlantis. They'll be safe there." Elizabeth urged,Alice and Rodney watched as Lycus hesitated. "If we didn't answer your call for help, this would still be happening."

"Chancellor, please listen to them." Norina pleaded.

Finally he nodded. "Alert the settlement. Tell our people to gather only their most precious possessions and come here as quickly as possible. We'll begin evacuating immediately."

Alice let out the breath she'd been holding, and cast another look out at the caldera in front of them. Based on the last tremor, they didn't have a lot of time left. If they didn't hurry either the ground would eat them up or the burning ash and smoke would suffocate them.

Elizabeth and the Chancellor headed down towards the gate, John started organising the security teams into evacuation leads. Alice walked back over to Rodney. "Let's see if we can buy us more time."

——————

Alice watched helplessly as the gate sank below the thin crust into the large chamber of magma that was now bubbling in the basin of the caldera. Carson was stood next to her, he gripped her hand fearfully.

"What the hell happened?" John came barrelling into the room, with Teyla and Ronon on his heels. They'd been downstairs monitoring the evacuation.

"The Stargate -- it was swallowed up by the magma." Carson managed to say, his voice was trembling slightly. As calm and collected Carson was under pressure, he wasn't used to the disaster level events that her team seemed to encounter offworld.

"We are so screwed!" Rodney shouted his eyes were also wide with fear.

"You mean we're stuck here?" Ronon pushed forward to look down at where the gate once was.

"If we have no way of contacting Atlantis ..." Teyla trailed off.

"We are totally screwed." Rodney repeated.

"Alright, hang on. Let's not panic." John held his hands up trying to take control of the situation.

Rodney stood up, facing John. "This facility has no means of direct subspace communication."

"Will you just take it easy?" John chastised.

"We're inside a soon to be erupting volcano!" Rodney's wailed, pointing to the caldera outside.

"Elizabeth will try to dial us back. When she can't get through ..." he paused for a moment, the team waited expectantly. "... she'll send the Daedalus.

Rodney pointed at him his face becoming more hopeful "Daedalus, right -- that's good!"

Alice bit her lip, given their recent update with the ship, it would be at least a day before the Daedalus would reach them. Unless if they found a way to increase the capacity of the hyperdrive, though she could almost see Hermiod's reaction to that. But there was no point mentioning this and creating more panic.

"Er, what if the volcano erupts before then?" Carson let go of Alice's hand and looked at John.

John's face brightened. "The ship in the hangar. Maybe McKay can fix it!"

"Oh, maybe I can fix it! Place the pressure squarely on my shoulders for a change!" Rodney's panic changed to irritation pretty quickly.

John put on his best stoney face. "Well, I've discovered you're pretty good under the threat of impending death!"

Rodney pointed at him as though he was about to start shouting, then stopped himself. Silently, he walked over to Norina and puts his hand on her shoulder. "I am, actually." He turned and ran out of the room.

Alice rolled her eyes. "Rodney! You're gonna need help."

Rodney finally slowed down, most likely because he'd run out of breath. Alice hit his shoulder. "That ship has been sitting there for 10 thousand years, the battery is going to be completely drained. We'll need a jumpstart to get this thing going."

Rodney blinked. "You're right. I didn't even think about that."

Alice smiled, the others catching up to them. "That's why you have me right." She turned and pulled her datapad from her bag. "Okay the main power room is a few floors down. I'll go there and see if i can redirect some power to you, and see if there is anything i can do to boost the shields while im there."

Alice looked at the facility blueprints, then started heading towards a nearby staircase. "Wait, you're not going alone." John called after her.

"I'll be 10 minutes, you need to get all the Taranan's on board that ship."

"But..."

"I'll be fine. 10 minutes." She didn't wait for him to agree, she turned on her heel and ran down the steps.

* * *

Alice was sat on the floor of the power room. Her laptop plugged into the ageing ancient system. So far, she'd been able to redirect the power they needed to start the ship. But the shield was another problem. A lot of the systems weren't responding, but she was still hoping she'd be able to increase the output around a concentrated area, even for just a short time.

The power room was lower down in the facility, below ground level. So when the next tremor hit, Alice thought she was about to be buried alive. All around her the walls started shaking and breaking apart. Thos had to be the most extreme tremor to hit. Every instinct was telling her to run. Dirt was now pouring down onto her like a waterfall. Leaving her equipment behind she ran for the door, her arms raised to protect her head from falling debris.

She dived through the doorway and headed straight for the reinforced hallway. She dropped to her knees, hands over her head and waited. Finally, the ground stopped shaking.

Warily, she lifted her head, dirt fell from her hair. The air was thick with dust, coughing, she looked back to see the room she'd just vacated completely blocked with rocks.

"John. Rodney. Come in." She tried her radio inbetween coughs. But there was no response, all she could hear was static. She tried again, but nothing more than crackling filled her ear.

Alice coughed again. The dust had finally started settling, so she could actually start to see around her now. Though the lights that one lit the path were hazy, creating an eery glow. Grabbing the wall, she pulled her self up and brushed the dirt off her as best she could.

The corridor up ahead looked clear back to the staircase, that was her best shot. She needed to get out of here before more tremors hit.

Alice moved forward carefully, stepping over the large boulders that covered the floor. She made it to the staircase with relative ease, but the sight made her stomach drop. "Shit..." the entire staircase was blocked. Steel beams and rocks from the upper level had completely caved in her way out. She got as close as possible to the wall of earth and tapped her radio. "John, can you hear me." More static. Alice hit the wall. "Come in. Over." She waited but nothing happened.

Alice coughed and dropped back down into the hallway. She took a quick inventory of her gear. Annoyingly her backpack was back in the room with her laptop. All she had on her was her tac-vest. Which meant a couple of power bars, her P90, a stick of C4, some basic medical supplies and a torch. She thought about using the C4 on the rocks, but most likely that would just make things worse.

She bit down on her lip, pulling out her torch she around her. The way she'd come only led back to the caved in room, but the other way seemed clear enough. She thought about the blue prints that were on her laptop, but she couldn't remember where this passage led - if anywhere. It was better than staying here though.

She took in a deep breath and started walking.

The corridor seemed to go forever, though to Alice's dismay it seemed to be sloping down rather than up. There had been a few doorways along the way, but some were sealed shut and others looked like they hadn't been touched since the Ancients left. The consoles she did find were powered down and she didn't have anyway to fix that, so she'd left them behind.

Luckily, the tremors seemed to have stopped for now. Alice sighed and stopped walking, she put her hands on her knees and slid down onto the floor. She'd been walking for a good few hours now. Every 10 minutes she'd tried her radio with no luck.

She was sure John and the others would have noticed her absence by now and would be undoubtedly trying to reach her. That thought comforted her. Though another thought tugged at the back of her mind, if there was another way out of here, surely they would have been here already. Alice pushed that to the back of her mind. There was a lot more pressing matters the team needed to take care of, as she always tried to tell John. She could take care of herself.

She checked her watched, 20 minutes had passed. She swallowed dryly, her throat felt like it had a healthy coating dust and she'd found no water to wash it down. Groaning she pulled herself up to her feet. She had to keep going.

Just ahead of her the corridor split into two different halls. Alice shone her torch down both. Neither looked like they headed back up to the surface, but she could swear she felt a small breeze through the hall on the left. Just as she stepped forward the world shook violently.

She lost all sense of her footing and dropped to the floor, the torch scattering out of her hands. Alice swore and scrambled up, rocks were falling from the ceiling and the walls seemed to be straining under their own weight. Grabbing the torch Alice made a run for it.

All around her dirt fell as the ground shook. She could barely see where she was going, when she tripped over a dislodged rock. This time when she hit the floor she curled up into a ball and waited. The tremor stopped.

Alice once again dusted herself off and sat up. That's when she smelled it, the stench of rotten eggs. Sulphur. Immediately her hands covered her mouth and nose. The tremor must've opened a fissure to the underground chamber, meaning her hallway now filling with toxic gasses. She didn't have much time, she ran through the tunnel.

She pulled out a piece of medical gauze from her vest and held it up to her face. It wouldn't do much, but it was better than nothing.

Even through the gauze she could smell the sulphur, her lungs felt like they were burning, but she kept running. The hall turned into a tunnel, but she could feel the air flow getting stronger.

Suddenly she burst though out into the open. The sky was dark and ash fell all around her. She looked around confused, the hall must have led her out of the facility. The ash was thick but she thought she could make out the shape of buildings down to the right. She didn't stop to think, she forced her legs to move.

Ash coated her entire body, her eyes stung from the fumes in the air. But every step she took the buildings became clearer.

Alice blinked and saw she was standing at the edge of a small village. The ash covered the ground like snow, for a moment Alice was reminded of the snow globes for sale in every tacky gift shop back home. Right now she felt like she was stuck in one. The village looked deserted, there were no lights on and no sounds. The hope in her chest started to fade away.

"Ronon!"

Alice whipped her head to the right. She wasn't sure if she was hearing things, but she could have sworn Teyla had just called out to her. She ripped the gauze off her mouth. "Teyla!!" She shouted as loudly as she could.

"Alice!" Instead of Teyla's voice, Ronon's deep voice bellowed her name.

Desperately she ran towards his voice, coughing heavily. "Ronon!" A dark shape materialised out from the ash, Alice stumbled. But before she could fall, a large hand gripped the back of her vest and started dragging her along. Alice shut her stinging eyes and allowed herself to blindly follow Ronon.

Finally they stopped moving and Alice felt Ronon's hand let go. She dropped down onto her knees brushing the ask out of her face. "Alice!" Teyla's voice was next to her head, then another pair of hands started helping rid her of the ash.

"Did everyone else get through?" She heard Ronon ask.

"Yes. We are the last to remain."

"We'd better get going, then."

"Ronon, the tunnel is blocked. I was just there. It collapsed during the last tremor."

Alice finally managed to open her eyes, they burned badly, but she was finally able to see her team mates in front of her. They were in some type of small barn, a family of four was huddled in the corner.

"Alice, where have you been? Are you alright?" Teyla started giving her a full once over.

"Staircase collapsed..." she broke down in a convulsive coughing fit.

"It's okay, don't talk. Here." Teyla pulled out her canteen of water. Gratefully, Alice took it and started washing away the coating of dirt.

"We can't go back out there." Ronon pointed outside. Alice shook her head in agreement.

Teyla sighed. "I have been trying to hail Colonel Sheppard."

"So we're stuck?"

"It would appear so."

Alice coughed, breaking the silence. "We need to find something to cover our mouths." She pointed outside. "The air is getting more toxic every minute. We won't last long."

———-

Teyla and Alice sat by the door. They tried to keep their voices down. Alice didn't want to scare the children that were huddled up on a pile of straw with their parents. Ronon had just gone to check on them.

"What are we gonna do?" He walked back over to them. His voice was husky from the toxic air.

"There is no place to go." Teyla shook her head.

"I'm not good at sittin' around waiting to die." He looked out the door. "Maybe we can make it back to the base on foot."

"We'd never make it." Alice barely had a voice left.

Teyla wrapped her arm around Alice's shoulder. "As long as we can breathe, there is still hope. We may be able to last a few minutes longer in here than out there."

————-

Alice felt her eyes closing, her breath was now coming in short gasps. She felt like she was barely conscious.

She felt Teyla's hand placed under her nose. "She's still alive, but barely. Perhaps you were right." She coughed weakly. "We should have tried to make it back to the base on foot."

"No. You were right. We'd be dead. As long as we can breathe, there's still hope."

Then Alice felt like she had lost it. A bright light filled her vision.

————-

Alice blinked, air was rushing around her mouth and filling her lungs. Alarmed she sat up and started pulling the source away from her.

"Hey! Calm down. You're on the Daedalus!" Hands grabbed hers and forced them down against her sides.

Alice's vision started to clear. Shapes became recognisable. She was in the ship's infirmary and the air around her face was from an oxygen mask. She relaxed, the medic released her arms. "What happened?" Her voice was still croaky.

"We managed to beam you, your teammates and a Taranan family off the surface. We got to you just in time, any longer and-"

Alice sat up on her elbows looking around. "My team." She asked.

"They're on the bridge."

"Sheppard? And Rodney?" She looked at the medic's face.

"No report yet." Alice threw off the blanket and swung her legs over the side of the bed. "What are you doing?" The medic tried to push her back in the bed.

"Let me go, i need to find my team." She shoved him aside, harder than was necessary. "I'll be fine, i'll take this." Grabbing one of the portable oxygen tanks from the side she slipped on the new mask and headed out the door.

She stumbled her way onto the bridge. "Riley! You're supposed to be in the infirmary." Caldwell didn't look impressed to see her.

Teyla ran over to her side to support her. "Not while they're still down there."

Caldwell stared at her for a moment, before turning back and focusing on the problem. Alice smiled and walked over to join Ronon by the window.

"We should try to land." Ronon was staring down at the planet. The plume of ash was clearly visible.

"The planet's surface is far too unstable to attempt any landing." Hermiod's voice came over the comms.

"So our only option is to sit here and wait?" Teyla said frustrated.

"There is one other option." Hermiod replied.

"What?" Ronon asked.

"We could leave." Everyone on the bridge tensed.

"That's not an option we're considering." Caldwell reassured.

———

As silent as a vigil, Alice, Teyla and Ronon stood looking down over the planet.

Hermiod's voice broke their silence. "Colonel. I believe the eruption will occur in fifty two seconds."

Alice looked back at the Colonel. "Are you sure?" His face was creased with worry lines.

"I would not state it if I wasn't." Hermiod stated.

Alice took in a deep breath of her oxygen, and looked back at the planet. "Come on you two." She whispered.

Hermiod started counting down. Alice grinned Teyla's hand. "Five, four, three, two, one."

Even from space the eruption looked devastating. A fresh plume of ash, bigger than anything they'd seen so far started engulfing the planet.

Seconds later, a hyperspace window opened between them and the planet. An Ancient warship appeared through it. The entire bridge came to life, alarms and lights flashed. "This is the Daedalus. Are there any survivors aboard?" Caldwell said tensely.

Alice smiled as she heard John's voice. "Yes, sir. In fact, we have a pretty big passenger list."

Alice, Teyla and Ronon rushed down to the infirmary where they'd started beaming people. "John!" She called huskily, her voice still croaky from the toxic air.

"Riles!" He pushed through the crowd and enveloped her into a crushing hug. "What happened to you." He pushed back and held her at arms length looking her up and down.

"Got trapped underground, but ended up in the village with Teyla and Ronon. We got lucky and the Daedalus picked up our transmitters." She grinned, doing her own examination of John. He looked a bit dirty, but otherwise perfectly healthy.

"Seems like we all got lucky." He looked around at the room full or Taranans.

Alice looked at the Taranans around her, they looked grim and filthy, but they were alive. "We did it." She murmured softly.

———

When they got back to Atlantis, Alice was ordered by Carson to stay in the infirmary alongside Teyla and Ronon for observation. Something about inhaling a dangerous amount of toxic gas.

Though apart from a mild cough, Alice felt better than ever. It was nice to see the Taranan's they'd help saved in with her. She was in a bed next to one of the children Teyla and Ronon had pulled out of the village. Her name was Mareena.

She was currently say on the edge of the Mareena's bed. She couldn't have been older than six. "How about this?" Alice turned around the data pad in her hands. On it was a terrible drawing of a person. The Mareena giggled and shook her head. "Really, i thought it looked just like you!" Alice mocking hurt.

Then she smiled and cleared the screen. "Do you want to draw something for me?" Alice held the tablet out.

Mareena shyly reached out and started tracing her fingers over the screen.

"How are my two favourite girls doing?" Carson walked over to them, pulling his stethoscope from his neck.

Alice beamed up at him. "We're doing great. Well enough to maybe venture out?" She asked hopefully.

Carson sighed. "Well, let's have a listen shall we." He gestured for Alice to sit back on her bed.

She gave Mareena a smile. "I'll be right back."

Alice sat back on her bed as Carson drew the curtains and performed his checks of Mareena. Through the curtains she could hear him asking her to take a few deep breaths.

Alice swung her legs back and forth on her bed, waiting for her turn. Her lungs no longer ached like they first did when they'd arrived back. But there was still a tenderness and a lingering cough that she was sure would take weeks to fully go. The curtain pulled back and Carson stepped up to her.

Alice knew the drill by now, turning around she pulled up her shirt so Carson could place the end of the stethoscope against the skin of her back. She shivered as the cold metal came in contact with her skin.

"Alrighty my dear, just take a deep breath in for me." Alice inhaled deeply, trying to avoid the urge to cough. "And again." He moved the scope around her back.

Alice did as she was told. Finally he pulled back and Alice dropped her shirt twisting to look at him. "So?"

"It still sounds a bit laboured, but nothing i don't think won't clear up in a few days." He smiled gently at her.

"Thanks doc." She slipped off her bed and started putting her shoes on.

"Now-"

"Don't worry, we'll take it easy. Just to the mess and back."

"Alright then." Carson sighed, knowing he couldn't refuse her.

Alice smiled and kissed his cheek as she pushed the curtain. "Thanks Doc. Alright Mareena you ready to see Atlantis?" Mareena almost jumped out of the bed into Alice's arms. "Woah there." She laughed and set her down.

Holding her hand she led her out towards the mess hall. They walked slowly, Mareena stared at the large hallways in wide-eyed amazement.

Alice looked down at her small hand clutching her own. She'd never before felt like she had any maternal urges, but she couldn't say she didn't love hanging out with kids. They saw the world in a completely different way, a way most adults had forgotten about. They were also so vulnerable, and Alice couldn't help but feel protective.

"Well look who it is." John called from ahead of them. He was walking down the hallway, his face breaking out into a smile as he spotted them.

"I was just taking Mareena here to the mess hall." Alice looked down at the little girl who was now hiding partially behind her leg.

John bent down to Mareen's level. "Isn't that nice, y'know there is something we have here that is reserved for only really good kids. Are you a good kid?"

Alice couldn't help but think how great John was with children. She'd noticed it before, but never thought much about it. Briefly, her thoughts turned to his ex-wife. She wondered if they'd ever tried to have children - doubtful given his career at the time. But watching him now with Mareena, Alice wondered if he had any regrets about it.

Mareena was nodding furiously, suddenly no longer shy. Instead she was now reaching out for John's hands. John smiled and scooped her up into his arms. "Let's go get some then."

All together they headed through the doors of the mess hall. John put Mareena down and let her pick the colour of Jello she wanted then they headed out to a table on the balcony.

Mareena happily scooped at her jello. Alice took in a long breath of the fresh sea air. "What do you think Mareena?" The little girl nodded her head vigorously. John just laughed.

Suddenly, Alice felt a wave of dread wash over her as she watched Mareena. There were millions of people, children, like her that were being grown and culled like cattle for the Wraith. The past three years, their battles, all the successes and failures they've had suddenly seemed negligable. The Wraith dominated the entire galaxy, and they'd barely even made an impact after three years.

She was pulled out of her thoughts by John putting his hand on her shoulder. "How are we going save everyone?" She couldn't help asking, even though she already knew the answer.

John's lips drew together in a tight line, and he gave her shoulder a small squeeze. "We'll save as many as we can." He promised.


	24. Chapter 24

**A/N new chapter!**

 **As always I hope you enjoy the chapter.**

For Atlantis it had a been a mostly uneventful few weeks. Personnel had been going about their normal routines and supply missions. But Alice had finally been able to get her hands on a working Ancient warship - sure they'd almost died in the process but in her eyes it had been worth it.

This ship was incredible, and the Taranan's had very kindly allowed her and a team of scientists onboard to fix and research it.

Alice was sat on the ground beside one of the control panels in the main control room. "Alright, time for a break." John clapped his hands as he strode into the room.

Alice stared incredulously at him. "Wha?! I'm just in the middle of-"

John held up a finger. "Ah. Ah. It's always I'm just about to test this or in the middle of this." He put his hands onto his hips in a commanding stance. "You're getting up and we're getting something to eat."

Alice narrowed her eyes at him. "Really, just 10 more min-" her sentence ended in a screech as John dropped and threw her over his shoulder. "Put me down!" She yelled indignantly.

"Not gonna happen." She could hear the smile on his face. Alice tried to wiggle free multiple times, her face bright red as they passed fellow Atlantis personnel and Taranans, but John's grip just tightened on her.

Finally he stopped and she felt him drop to crouch just as her feet touched the ground. She crossed her arms and gave him her best glare. "That was really unnecessary."

"No, It wasn't. We've been out here for a week and you've barely stopped to eat." John walked around her and started grabbing food out of the storage packs. He thrust a MRE pack at her and strode off with one of his own to a table nearby.

Alice gripped the MRE tightly and stayed still deciding whether to give in and join him or try and make a break for it. Knowing John though he wouldn't let her get far. Sighing, she stormed over to the table and dropped down onto the chair, still glaring at him.

John had an amused smirk on his face as he tore open his pack and laid out the packets of food. "How's it going then? You think you can build us our own ship?"

Alice scoffed. "I could spend the rest of my life here and still i don't think i'd be able to tell how some of this stuff works." She looked around the room in awe. "But i think we've been making some good progress on the repairs." Alice opened her own pack and started eating. "How's it been going for you?"

John nodded. "Fine, you know how it is." Alice smiled, in exchange for letting the science teams access to the Orion John had been training the Taranan military teams.

The next few moments they ate in a comfortable silence, it only broke when Alice broke out into a fit of coughs.

"It sounds like it's getting worse. Maybe we should head back to Atlantis today." John narrowed his eyes as he examined her face in concern.

Alice held her hand up still trying to catch her breath. "I'm fine, Carson cleared me for duty."

John looked at her suspiciously. While it was true Carson had given her a full check over, he'd only cleared her for desk duty with the condition she was to return immediately if she was still having trouble breathing after a week.

"Colonel!" A corporal came running into the lunch room, flustered with beads of sweat forming on his face.

"What is it?" John always managed to keep a cool look even when he was slightly alarmed.

"Dr. Weir has requested that all senior officers return to Atlantis immediately." The Corporal said breathlessly.

Alice realised he must have run all the way from the gate. Both John and Alice were on their feet immediately. "Thanks Corporal."

Immediately, John and Alice had raced back through the gate, giving their apologies to the Taranian's as they ran.

They were now standing back in the main Atlantis control room, whilst Rodney showed them the long range scans showing a hive ship on direct course for Atlantis.

"By my calculations they'll be here within two days." Rodney said dejectedly.

"Why didn't the sensors pick them up sooner?" Alice narrowed her eyes curiously, they should have been able to see them from at least a week out.

"Um..." Rodney started awkwardly. "We've been trying to integrate some of the Orion's tech into Atlantis and we had the long range scanners down for the last few days."

John groaned. "Whose idea was that."

"Mine." Elizabeth said confidently. "We have bigger problems to worry about now though." She turned to Teyla and Ronon. "Prepare your people for evacuation, Alice and Rodney prepare to cloak the city."

Alice and Rodney nodded. Luckily, they were used to setting up for the cloak now, so it only took them a few minutes to make the necessary arrangements.

Rodney spent the rest of his time trying to write an algorithm that could cut down the time to switch from cloak to shield. Alice helped Teyla with the evacuation, whilst John and Ronon prepared for another siege.

————

Alice hurriedly typed on her laptop. The countdown on the screen showed they had just under two minutes till the hive's arrival.

Alice had a cold feeling of dread weighing down her shoulders. The proximity alarms Alice set up started sounding, she cursed and jumped up. "Finish those calculations!" She yelled at the nearest science officer, and threw herself into the Atlantis control chair. John and Rodney were on board the Orion, and Carson was preparing for casualties so that left her to man Atlantis' main weapon and final line of defence. The code the technician was working on integrated Rodney's new algorithm into the chair giving her full control of the shield and cloak.

Alice closed her eyes and concentrated, feeling all of Atlantis' systems come alive in her mind. She switched to the short range sensors, closing in a tight look on the hive ship.

Her radio crackled in her ear. "Colonel Caldwell, are you in position?" Elizabeth was up in the control room monitoring and calling the final shots.

"Affirmative. We're out of scanning range and ready to jump into position on your go-ahead." Caldwell's no nonsense voice replied.

"Excellent."

"Just for the record, I still think that we should be in orbit around Atlantis, ready to open up on that hive ship the second it comes out of hyperspace." Despite everything that had happened Alice couldn't believe Caldwell still had the gall to blatantly question Elizabeth on an open forum.

Elizabeth didn't let it shake her though. "It's one hive, Colonel, which suggests they might just be checking up on us. There's no need to confirm our presence if we don't have to. Just stand by."

"Standing by." Caldwell replied, but his voice crackled with resistance.

"Colonel Sheppard -- how goes it on your end?"

"Well, we're out of sensor range and all that, but whether or not we're ready to fight is a whole another story." Alice winced at his reply, she had been so focused on just getting the main lifesupport and sensors repaired over the last couple of weeks that she'd neglected the hyperdrive and weapons systems. She listened as Rodney and John bickered in the background, really it should have been her on the Orion instead of Rodney but he couldn't control the chair as well as her and John was the better pilot.

"Rodney's doing everything inhumanly possible to be ready." John said finally, though he didn't sound exactly positive.

"Good. Alice, you ready?"

"We're all green down here." She replied. "Let's hope they're just making a flying visit."

In her head she watched the hive drop out of hyperspace and set itself up into orbit around Lantea. Alice took in a breath to calm her nerves and lower her heart rate. All systems were on standby, they didn't want to give the wraith any energy signatures to lock onto.

She had her weapons systems operating and ready to lock onto the hive ship at a seconds notice.

"Atlantis, report?" Caldwell's tense voice broke through the silence.

"They've just entered orbit. No weapons armed." She reported.

"If they do, I want you to switch from cloak to shield as quickly as possible. Don't wait for my order." Elizabeth's clear and calm voice ordered.

"You got it." Alice felt her nerves tingling and her stomach clench as she sat waiting for any sign of hostility.

"You could be a little more chatty, Elizabeth." John's voice sounded nervous.

"I'm sorry -- we're just waiting for them to make the next move." Elizabeth replied.

"Transmitting a signal, audio only." Alice heard Chuck report in the background. She darted her thoughts around to scan for transmissions, locking into the signal.

Alice's blood went cold, as a familiar voice sounded in her head. "We know you are there. We mean you no harm. Please respond."

"John, are you hearing this?" Elizabeth's shook slightly now.

"It's repeating again." Chuck said in the background.

"We mean you no harm. There is no point in hiding, Doctor Weir. We know you are there. We mean you no harm. Please respond." Alice suppressed a shiver, there was no doubt in her mind now.

"Is that who I think it is?" John didn't sound nervous anymore, pissed off would be a better descripter.

"It's Michael. I could never forget his voice." Alice said shakily into her radio.

"You don't actually intend to respond?" Caldwell sneered.

"Why not?" Elizabeth questioned.

"Where d'you want me to start?" Caldwell replied sarcastically.

Alice listened quietly as the they debated whether or not to respond. Her hand trembled slightly over the weapons controls, it would only take a single thought and Michael would be gone forever. She could get him back for what he did and they would be safe.

To say she was tempted would be an understatement. The only thing that stopped her was knowing Elizabeth would have no option but to remove her from the expedition. Especially as Caldwell was here, even though he'd probably agree with her decision he'd jump at the chance to throw the rule book at her - and likely find someway of blaming John for her actions as well.

So, she held her tongue and stayed ready. Alice knee Elizabeth wouldn't give the order though even after everything they'd been through she was still a diplomat at heart.

"Open a channel." She heard Elizabeth order. Alice tensed, prepared in case they somehow managed to trace their signal. "Hello, Michael."

"Why the long delay?" Michael's voice crackled around her.

"We needed to take a few precautions before contacting you. I'm sure you understand why."

"I said we would not harm you." Alice almost hissed at his reply.

"Well, excuse me for not taking you at your word." Elizabeth said in her best negotiator voice. "You wanted to talk -- we're listening. Go ahead."

"Over two years ago, every hive ship in this galaxy emerged from hibernation prematurely. We thought a new rich feeding ground had been discovered."

Alice's blood went cold, he was talking about -"Earth." Elizabeth sounded her fear.

"Unfortunately, locating your planet and uncovering an effective means of transportation to get there has proven quite difficult."

"Well, I can't say I'm sad to hear that." There was almost a hint of triumph in her voice.

Alice listened to Michael's proposition of an alliance. Her screen lit up with a warning as the Wraith sent through the data burst. There was no way for her to verify the data from where she was, but she wasn't about to leave the chair and Atlantis unguarded. Not when they were dealing with Michael.

Michael cut the comms stream and the hive seemed to enter a slumbered state. Alice could only detect minimal energy activity, definitely no outgoing signals.

"John, Colonel, Rodney. Alice." Elizabeth was tense, her cool act was dropped. "Report to the conference room."

————-

Before she'd left the chair room, Alice had set up a fix on the hive ship to monitor for any transmission, hopefully this would help them see if Michael would keep his word.

Alice sat next to John and Ronon in the conference room. Everyone had a tense expression. Alice had her hands on the table in front of her, her fingers interlocked and her knuckles turning white as she absent-mindedly squeezed them together.

"Well, I think it's safe to say that if they were going to attack us, they would have done it by now. They let the Daedalus land without incident." Caldwell broke the silence.

Elizabeth nodded. "And you're sure they don't know about the Orion?"

John held up his hands to animate his words. "I ordered Lorne to park her just outside of sensor range."

Rodney looked up from a laptop that they'd downloaded the Wraith data burst onto. "This -- this is incredible! I can't believe they actually sent this over so freely. I mean, if I can figure out how to break through this programme -- which is, well, as you know, pretty likely -- we could nuke any hive ship that we came across."

"Including Michael's?" Alice raised an eyebrow. John gave her a cautious look.

Rodney had a shakey smile on his face, like he didn't dnt know whether to be scared of the Wraith or her. "Well, it might take a couple of tries the first time."

John shook his head. "Long enough to tell the rest of the Wraith we're still around."

Rodney scoffed. "If they really are willing to let me run tests on their ship, I mean, this is a ... it's an amazing opportunity, Elizabeth!"

Alice rolled her eyes, those are definitely not the words she would have used to describe this situation.

John leaned back in his chair, swinging his gaze around the room. "Well, think about it -- this is essentially our idea. We created the retrovirus in order to do exactly what they're proposing we do. What's the down side? I mean, other than the fact that we'd be working with the Wraith?"

"Isn't that enough?" Caldwell echoed Alice's internal thoughts.

"It would mean at least something good came of our experiment with Michael." Carson said quietly. Alice knew he was still feeling guilty about the men who had not so recently lost their lives to Michael.

When Alice looked up she saw Elizabeth staring directly at her and Ronon.

"What?" Ronon asked bluntly.

"What do you two think?"

"Let's do it." Alice twisted her head around startled at Ronon's answer.

"Really?" Elizabeth sounded just as surprised.

Ronon looked at Alice. "Sheppard said it himself -- it's our idea."

Elizabeth nodded thoughtfully. "I just thought you of all people ..."

"Hey, if they want our help killing other Wraith, it's one kind of help I'm happy to provide." Now it made sense to her, he also probably had a plan forming in the back of his mind to kill Michael as well.

"OK. And you Alice?"

Alice took in a short breath and looked around the room. Everyone was watching her, John especially carefully. She nodded. "It's the best option we have. I don't have to like it, but like Carson said." She looked at the Doctor straight in the eye. "Let's try to get something good out of all of this."

Elizabeth nodded and cast one final look around the room at everyone. "So, we're going to do this." She paused waiting for anyone to disagree, no one made a sound. "I'll accept the offer."

Every stood as Elizabeth strode out of the room. Alice bit down on her lip, doubt prickled at the back of her head. She really hoped this was the right choice.

"Hey." John whispered quietly so the others wouldn't hear. "It's gonna all work out." He reached out subtly to squeeze her hand, his lips were turned up into a reassuring smile.

Alice nodded. "Sure. But if anyone's going onto that ship, i'm going with them." She said with absolute resolution in her voice. She wasn't going to let Michael take anyone else away from them. Last time he'd come too close to taking Teyla away from her, she wasn't going to let that happen again.

John looked like he was about to argue, but his eyes were drawn past her. Alice craned her neck to see Teyla walking past them. "Excuse me." John dropped her hand and followed the Athosian out. Alice had seen it too, a deep unsettling look was haunting Teyla's face.

Alice walked out and across to the control room. She looked over Rodney's shoulder at the screen filled with Wraith scrawl. "Alice, I need you back in the chair. The Wraith around going to be sending an envoy." Elizabeth looked

Alice dipped her head respectfully and headed down to the chair room.

———-

So far the Wraith had been well behaved. Alice had spent an hour in the chair monitoring their envoy down to Lantea and then watching the hive for a bit to see if anything suspicious happened. But nothing did, they seemed to be on their best behaviour, which if anything made Alice even more uneasy.

There had to be something else going on here, and they needed to figure out before the Wraith showed their hand.

Alice strode down the corridor towards the control room. She'd completed her duty in the chair, any transmissions or suspicious activity would be picked up through the control room now, so there had been no point in draining the ZPM using the chair.

Now, she had been ordered to join Rodney on the Daedalus to support him in breaking through the Wraith code. She smiled smugly to herself, apparently he just couldn't do it without her.

She walked quickly, a nervous feeling in her gut bubbled away as she got closer. She could almost feel her skin crawling, she wasn't sure why. Then she turned a corner and found out why. Michael. He was walking down the hall towards her flanked by a marine escort. Alice felt like the air had been knocked out of her. As he drew closer she took a step to her side to make way for him. Anger, fear and anxiety filled her chest. His eyes flicked towards her as he got closer, his lips turned up into a smirk. "Hello Riles."

Bile rose in her throat, as he passed her. Her hand reached down towards her holster, but nothing was there. She took in a calming breath, and watched until he was gone. Alice knew he was purposely trying to get to her, but hearing John's nickname coming from his mouth, she couldn't help but feel the veiled threat underneath.

She turned and picked up her pace, trying to take her mind of Michael. There wasn't anything he'd be able to do now. But she'd be damned if she was going to let him in her head to torture her. After a few minutes she reached the gateroom. She joined a few others in the middle of the room in a small group. Then nodded at Chuck. "We're ready."

A flash of light and Alice blinked to find herself in the familiar halls of the Daedalus. It took her a moment to orientate herself, then she headed straight for the Engine room. Her mind still replaying Michael's words.

As Alice walked in she could see Rodney had his head buried in his laptop. He looked up to see her enter, then turned to the ships resident Asgard. "Huh, some pretty interesting stuff, eh? I think I've learned more about Wraith technology in the last hour than I have in the past two years." Alice stifled a giggle as Hermiod blatantly ignored him. "Oh, come on -- I understand you're an Asgard and everything, but even you've gotta feel a bit of an adrenaline buzz."

"My body does not possess the adrenal gland that produces epinephrine in your system. And even if I did, I would not be as easily impressed." This time Alice did smile, from what she'd read on the Asgard most didn't seem to posses a sense of humour.

Rodney frowned. "I get it! I get it. You think you're smarter than I am. You ready to go or not?"

"I have been for some time." Hermoid said smugly.

Rodney rolled his eyes, then activated his headset radio. "This is McKay. Give me an open channel to the hive." He then cleared his throat nervously. "This is Doctor Rodney McKay aboard the Earth ship Daedalus. We would like ... uh ... with your permission, to begin attempting to beam an innocuous canister onto your ship while you are actively jamming. Uh, we're hoping through trial and error that we can ... slowly ..." he let put a nervous chuckle. "disarm or, uh, break the code. May we proceed?"

Alice sat down at one of the stations next to Rodney and started calibrating her equipment to monitor the test.

————-

Alice rubbed her eyes. "I'm telling you Rodney the only way to do this is by writing a programme that can anticipate the frequency change. Your code is too slow. Listen to Hermoid."

Rodney had a stubborn look on his face as he stared blankly at his code. They'd managed to beam one canister through the Wraith's jamming code but only half of it.

She stood up and walked over to Rodney, leaving over his shoulder to point at his screen. "Look, every time the program breaks through the code has already changed. We need to take another look at the Wraith base code, find out the time between frequency changes and target that time."

Rodney said nothing. Alice sighed, standing back up and threw her hands in the air giving Hermiod an exasperated look.

"Riles, come in."

She gave Rodney one last frustrated look and then tapped her radio. "Go ahead."

"We need you and Rodney to come to the conference room."

Alice furrowed her brow, John's voice sounded off. Something had shaken him. Michael once again flashed in her head. "Sure, we're on our way." Alice picked up Rodney jacket from one of the empty seats and threw it at him. "Come on, we need to report in. Something's happening."

————

They beamed straight into the gateroom. John was waiting for them on the balcony outside the conference room. His face told Alice everything she needed to know. Something had definitely happened.

She took the steps two at a time and quickly joined him, leaving Rodney behind. "What's going on?"

John bit down on his lip. "They tested the retrovirus, and the Queen has developed a taste for converted Wraith." He sounded horrified and bitter at the same time.

"Oh god, right in front of everyone?" Her face screwed up in disgust.

John nodded, flicking a piece of fluff off his uniform. He sighed. "We knew this would be the endgame. I just didn't expect it to happen in front of us."

Alice grimaced, imagining the screams of the man being fed on. She'd heard enough terrified screams of Wraith victims to know exactly how it would have sounded. A shudder shook her body.

"Colonel, Alice. Please." Alice looked around and saw Elizabeth gesturing them to come inside.

Alice put her hand on John's shoulder and gave it a quick squeeze. He smiled weakly at her as they both walked into the conference room and took a seat opposite the Wraith Queen.

"There is another hive ship a single jump away from this system. They recently attempted to attack our ship. I would like to test the virus on them first." The Queen's voice seemed like it echoed deep in Alice's mind. John had warned her about the female Wraith's mind abilities, so she tried to keep her guard up.

Carson fiddled with his fingers. "With all due respect, madam, I don't think we're there yet. We've been working with your scientist here on an effective means of disseminating the virus as an aerosol gas ..."

"And you have succeeded." She interrupted.

Carson looked at her hesitantly, trying to keep his voice strong. "Transforming a single Wraith in a controlled environment and trying to infect an entire hive at once are completely two different things."

"We still haven't been able to counter act the jamming signals either, so beaming it aboard would be out of the question." Alice added trying to make her voice clear and authoritative. Though she knew it wouldn't have the same affect as the Queen's voice.

The Queen's yellow eyes darted between Alice and Carson. Alice felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She had a bad feeling the Queen was thinking of all the ways she could probably be feeding on them. "We plan on entering their hive under the pretence of negotiating our surrender. Part of the delegation will break away, planting small canisters of gas throughout the ship. We need only to create a system that will synchronise the release."

Rodney nodded. "Well, we can do that." He turned to Carson. "Look, do we have the kind of volume we need?"

Carson looked reluctant to answer. "Aye. Our lab has been churning it out since we struck a deal with our friends here."

"Then we can do this?" Elizabeth raised her eyebrows at Carson.

"Well ... it's up to them." He looked nervously at the Queen.

"I would like our people to go along and observe."

"For what purpose?" The Queen almost snarled at Elizabeth.

"Make sure you stick to the plan, do what you say you're gonna do." Unlike everyone else in the room, John looked incredibly calm. The slightly horrified man Alice had seen outside before was gone, he was back to being the calm and stoney faced military leader.

The Queen stared at him, obviously trying to get a read on him. But eventually her eyes shifted to Elizabeth. "Very well."

"Good luck. To us all."

———-

Alice followed John towards the East Pier, where the Daedalus was preparing to depart. "I'm not sure this a good idea. And I don't think you're convinced either." She said as soon as the transporter doors closed behind them.

John pressed the icon closest to the pier. He ran a hand through his hair. "No. But what other option do we have."

Alice bit the inside of her cheek. He was right, there was no other options right now. "Then I'm coming with you." She said determindly.

John stopped in his tracks. "No, I need you here helping Rodney crack that code. If we can break it, it could give us a significant upper hand." He said convincingly.

Alice narrowed her eyes at him. She knew he was lying, he didn't want her on the ship incase the plan went sour. "Just..." she hesitated. "Just make sure you come home." She quickly pecked him on the lips and spun around to jog towards the lab. Her face was burning red, she wasn't good at public affection and a lot of the personnel still didn't really know about the two of them - they assumed but there wasn't anything concrete.

————

Alice had her head buried in her tablet, her radio was left open on the tac channel so she could listen to updates from the Daedalus. So far, nothing much had happened and Alice was trying to review Rodney's latest code.

Hermiod and Rodney were working silently at stations nearby.

"They didn't need you on the Daedalus?" Alice looked up thinking Rodney was addressing her, but his eyes were fixed on Hermiod.

Hermiod didn't look up from his laptop. "Colonel Caldwell believed my time was better spent disabling their jamming code."

Rodney smiled smugly. "Huh! So, they can fly that ship without you." Alice just rolled her eyes and returned to reading the code.

"Yes. But apparently you cannot run these tests without me." Luckily she dropped her head so Rodney couldn't see the broad smile that had just broken over her face at Hermiod's comment.

"I'm sure I would have been fine." Rodney huffed.

"I am not as sure." She thought she heard Hermiod mutter quietly under his breath.

"Really? Well ... Aly?"

Alice looked up at him, he gave her an expectant look. She quickly skimmed the final line, making one minor tweak. "Looks good."

Rodney straightened up and folded his arms over his chest. "OK -- try it now."

Hermiod typed a few keys on his interface. Alice watched the screen behind him light up with a simulation, then tapped her fingers as she waited. Finally the programme concluded and a big red banner flashed a SIMULATION SUCCESSFUL sign.

Rodney turned to face Hermiod triumphantly. "Well, well! Turns out the human knows what he's doing after all."

"Indeed. Your assistance on this project will be noted." Hermiod said wearily.

This time Alice couldn't help but laugh. "I'll let Elizabeth know." She took a few steps away and tapped her radio. "Elizabeth, Riley reporting in. We've got it."

"My "assistance"?!" Alice heard Rodney complaining in the background.

———

To her relief, John and the Daedalus had made it back unscathed. The hive however had taken heavy damage from the other hove - apparently the test hadn't exactly gone to plan.

Alice and Rodney stood behind John and Elizabeth in the control room as the Hive Queen reported to them from her ship. "Our delegation was searched. They were killed immediately when your canisters were discovered. Our transport ship tried to escape but it was destroyed. You must devise a better delivery method."

ElIzabeth crossed her arms. "Or what?"

The Queen hissed. "Or we will disclose your location to the other Wraith."

"We kept our part of the bargain. We gave you the retrovirus."

"And it is useless without an effective delivery system." The Queen snarled showing off her pointed teeth.

"So we have to do everything?!" John stepped slightly closer to the video link, his demeanour was commanding and imposing.

The Queen didn't reply, but Alice knew exactly what she was thinking. Elizabeth and John simultaneously turned around to Rodney and Alice.

Rodney sighed. "OK, OK. We will figure something out." He pointed at the Queen. "But no more holding back. I wanna know everything there is to know about hive ships: schematics, power distribution, life support configurations, everything you've got."

Alice was slightly stunned, it was unusual for Rodney to be this forceful. Though she wasn't sure if it would be the same if the Queen was actually here, her hand within reach of his chest.

"Then you shall have it." Alice almost let her jaw drop. She was pretty sure none of them believed that was the answer they were going to get.

"For real?" Rodney squeaked.

The Queen turned her head and nodded to someone offscreen on her ship. Moments later, one of the consoles behind them beeped.

"Receiving transmission." Chuck confirmed.

"Make sure it's secure." Elizabeth warned.

"Yeah-yeah-yeah, we're completely firewalled." He muttered as he ran over to Chuck's station. "Let me see that."

Alice tried to be a bit calmer, but she couldn't hide the excitement she felt at seeing all the data. Rodney pushed Chuck's chair away, sending the technician skidding across the room. By the time Alice was looking over his shoulder he was already scrolling through the files being downloaded.

"Oh!" He turned back to Elizabeth and John. "She actually did it! I mean, this is the motherlode!"

"What is, exactly?" Elizabeth raised an eyebrow.

"Only everything you've ever wanted to know about Wraith technology but were afraid to ask." He was grinning now. Alice's eyes were locked onto the screen, trying to skim read everything she could.

"Why are you doing this?" She heard Elizabeth ask behind her.

"We have suffered extensive damage." The Queen explained. Alice stiffened, she had a feeling she knew where this was going.

"We could render assistance." Alice grimaced as Elizabeth offered their help. looked away from the computer.

"You would do this?" The Queen's voice was full of doubt.

"We're supposed to have an alliance, aren't we? Sending information on Wraith technology was a remarkable act of good faith on your part." Elizabeth clasped her hands behind her back.

"Your assistance would be ... acceptable."

"Alright, then. We have a deal." The Queen dipped her head and the transmission cut out.

Alice watched Elizabeth slowly pivot around towards her. Her hands now in front of her and twitching anxiously. "Alice, you're our expert on spacecraft."

Alice straightened up and nodded. "I'll get my things ready."

"Wait." John's eyes were wide. "We can't send Riles up there alone!"

Elizabeth sighed, this was why she'd been anxious. She'd known John wasn't going to take this lightly. Alice, on the other hand, would go where she was needed. "I agree, I plan on sending Ronon with her."

"I'll go." John argued.

"No. You need to be here and when we're ready run the from the Daedalus." Elizabeth's voice was laced with authority.

"It's a big job, I could use an extra pair of hands." Alice admitted.

"You've got Rodney then too." Elizabeth nodded and then turned walking back to her office.

John looked ready to storm after her, but he stayed put.

"Why do we always have to be the ones in the Wraith ship." Rodney whined.

Alice smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Come on, let's gear up." She tapped her radio. "Ronon, gear up and meet us in the gate room."

John was watching her carefully, and followed as she headed for the staircase. "I know what you're going to say." Alice said before John could get a word out. "But i'm doing this." She gave John a resolute look.

She could see John scanning her face, deciding whether he was going to push the issue or not. "You're going to be surrounded by them."

She took in a deep breath. "I know, but what choice do we have."

John's brow furrowed. "I don't like it. None of you should be going up there, what-"

Alice smiled and put her hand on the back of John's neck. "I'll be fine. Besides I'll have my giant Satedan bodyguard, I'll be home for dinner." She winked and leaned forward to kiss him. "Now, I've got to get ready." Her hands dropped from his neck and she headed for the armoury. "Try not to blow up the city while i'm away."

—————

Alice walked inbetween Rodney and Ronon. They were onboard the Wraith hive ship. Rodney was running his scanner over the organic material that made up the walls. "The organic base of a lot of your technology -- it's, uh, it's quite amazing. Very, um, resilient."

The male Wraith scientist that had been assigned to 'assist' them, seemed pleased as Rodney's compliment. "Many of the problems we encounter eventually heal themselves, yes, but there are smaller, more complex issues."

"Ah. Such as the programming code to make your old ships do new things?"

"Or bypassing inoperable systems, yes. It has been so long since we have fought a real battle." He looked smug as he walked away.

Alice sneered, she hated being here. All her senses were alert and she also wished Rodney would stop praising the Wraith's ingenuity, despite the fact she couldn't help but be slightly impressed as well - though she'd never show it. She could tell Ronon felt the same way, being so close to the Wraith and having to call them allies was tough for him. Since they'd stepped foot on the hive his face had been locked in a permanent scowl.

"Before the civil war, there were Keepers who maintained the entire fleet, but they have made their own alliances." The Wraith continued.

"Sorry about that." Ronon said insincerely.

The Wraith either didn't understand his tone or deliberelty ignored it. He dipped his head towards Alice and Rodney. "Without your help, this damage may have been irreparable."

"Ah, finally an alien race that appreciates me!" Rodney said grinning stupidly.

"Let's just get this over with. Take us to the core system that took the most damage, we'll start there." Alice was fully geared up, with her P90 hanging from her vest and a handgun in her thigh holster. She wasn't taking any risks, not matter how many times they called themselves allies.

The Wraith stopped abruptly and turned to face them. "Do you think we will be able to come up with an adequate delivery system for the retrovirus?" Alice's hand reactively flinched onto her gun.

Rodney looked surprisingly unphased. "Hmm. Well, I know that you don't know me, so you couldn't possibly know this, but ..."

"The short answer is yes." Ronon finished for him.

The Wraith seemed pleased. "This way." He placed his hand onto Rodney's shoulder.

Instantly Ronon grabbed the Wraith and slammed him against the wall, holding a knife to his throat. Alice raised her P90 and pointed at him, her heart thudding like crazy.

"Ronon, are you crazy?! Do you wanna get us killed?!" Rodney shrieked.

"You don't touch him." Ronon threatened.

"He was guiding me down the hall, not sucking the life out of my shoulder!"

Alice took in a deep breath and lowered her gun slowly. Ronon continued to glare at the Wraith. "Ronon." She said softly. "It's okay."

"We are sorry." Rodney was panicking Now. "Say you're sorry!" He yelled at Ronon.

"That will not be necessary." The Wraith said diplomatically as Ronon finally released him. "He was protecting his superior. I would have done the same."

"He's not my superior." Ronon growled.

"Certainly not in ... every sense." Rodney stuttered.

"My apologies." The Wraith dipped his head at Ronon.

"You wanted to take us somewhere?"

"Please. This way." He held his hand out to show the way. Alice and Ronon exchange a glance, then follow him down the hall.

Alice and Rodney worked quietly side by side. They'd both agreed a plan of action. Alice was repairing the ship, whilst Rodney was breaking through their firewalls and hacking into their core systems. In theory, Rodney would be much better at the repairing than Alice, but in reality Alice was much more practical and understood the mechanics of ships better than Rodney cared to.

"Woah, woah, woah." Rodney stood up abruptly.

Alice raised her eyebrows. "What is it?"

"I need to get back to Atlantis." He shoved his tablet into his backpack. Alice started grabbing her own things as well. "No. No, you finish making the repairs. We're going to need this ship."

"Rodney!" Alice called after him exasperatedly. "You can't just..." she groaned as he rushed out past a slightly confused Ronon. "Make sure he gets to the shuttle, I'll be fine." She switched the safety off her gun as if to prove a point. Ronon didn't hesitate.

Alice looked around the lowly lit control hub, she was highly aware that she was alone in enemy territory - even if they were temporary allies it made her on edge. She twisted around so her back was towards the wall so she could face the main doorway. John would have killed her for letting her be separated from Ronon, but it should only be for a few minutes.

She sighed and returned to her repairs, all her senses were dialled up to the max.

————-

Rodney was back after about an hour, he'd told her his and John's plan. To be fair, it was well thought through, but it still relied on the Wraith to set it in motion. And she could tell the idea of relying on the Daedalus for distribution wasn't sitting well with their hosts.

The Wraith scientist had returned to watch over their work. When he wasn't looking Rodney slipped a transmitter into her hand. "For emergencies." He'd whispered.

The hyperdrive was stable and back online now, but there was still some damage to their sensors and life support that Alice was working on. But it wasn't bad enough to delay their mission, she could continue to make the repairs as they went.

"Y'know this would go a lot faster with your help Rodney." She looked over at him frustrated. He had been busy talking to the scientist about the Wraith beaming technology and whether they had adapted it from another society or created it themselves. She guessed from the Wraith's expression he was growing weary of the human.

"What." Rodney looked over cluelessly at her. "Oh. Of course." She rolled her eyes at his obliviousness.

—————

Alice lifted her wrist to check the time, they should be in position now. And they should have heard from John by now.

She cast a glance at their Wraith scientist, he carried himself with a great deal of arrogance. Standing up she cautiously walked over to him. "We should almost be in position now. To monitor properly we need to be on the bridge. I'd also like to set up an open comms channel to our ship."

"Of course, follow me." The Wraith barely reacted, she expected he'd been waiting for them to ask. But his tone and manners were still unsettling her. Something about his behaviour had changed, but Alice couldn't put her finger on what exactly.

"Ronon, Rodney. Let's go." She returned to grab her tablet, briefly brushing past Ronon who was glaring at the Wraith. "Stay sharp, something's off." She whispered quietly.

Rodney packed up most of his leads and gear, only leaving his tablet out to review schematics on their way.

They headed out of the room and down the corridor towards the bridge. The Wraith allowed them to lead, staying a comfortable distance behind them. They weren't even half-way to the bridge when Alice felt the first explosion. Immediately her hands went to her gun. Rodney ducked and covered his head with his hands. Ronon had his blaster out and was aiming down the corridor at their escort.

"What was that?" Rodney shrieked in panic. "Activate your transceiver."

Still keeping one hand on her gun she pressed the transponder Rodney had given to her that was strapped to her tac vest. Nothing happened. Quickly she pressed it again and twisted her neck around to check if Rodney and Ronon were still there.

"Oh no!" Rodney cowered behind them.

The Wraith turned with a sinister grin on his face, showing of his gleaming pointed teeth just as several guards walk around the corner.

Alice reacted on instinct, she grabbed the back of Rodney's jacket and opened fire. Before he could get a shot off, she watched Ronon drop to his knees as multiple blue energy blasts struck him.

Alice had to make a decision. The chances of her getting past this many guards, with a panicked Rodney and unconscious Ronon were almost impossible. But She wasn't about to leave him behind either. Before she could do anything more though, she felt a sharp impact in her back and her chest constricting. A numbness spread over her causing her to drop both Rodney and her gun.

She felt her knees hit the floor and shortly after her head. Her vision started clouding over. The last thing she saw was the Wraith grinning down at her as he approached Rodney.

————-

Alice's head was spinning and she felt nauseas. She tried to move her hand up to clutch her head but it felt like it was strapped to her side.

Her breath started coming quickly, her head was groggy and she was having trouble focusing on anything. "Alice. You awake?" She heard Ronon's rough grunts off to her right, she blinked a few times and slowly things started focusing.

She was trapped, all around her was the organic material that made up Wraith ships pinning her into the wall like a cocoon. Her face was the only thing not completely covered. "What happened? Where are we?"

She tried to move her head to see Ronon but the Wraith vines were too tight. "We got taken out. Obviously they're not keeping their side of the alliance." He sneered.

Alice struggled against the wall, trying to free her hands. "Is Rodney here?"

"Yeah. He's on my other side." Ronon was grunting heavily with effort. She assumed he was attempting to free himself the same as her.

Alice grunted. "I can't move at all."

"Neither. If i could just get-"

Alice stopped moving as she heard Rodney starting to mumble. "Rodney!" She tried to keep her voice down, so it came out as a harsh whisper.

"You OK?" Ronon asked.

Alice could hear Rodney's breathing becoming high pitched and irregular, he was hyperventilating. "No. No, I think this is the most not OK I have ever been."

The door opened and their Wraith escort walked over to them. He stopped in front of Ronon. "I see you have awakened."

Alice could just see him out of her peripheral vision. "Really? I was sort of hoping this was just a nightmare." Rodney's voice was trembling.

"Why aren't we dead?" Alice sneered. The last thing she wanted was to think the Wraith would be able to intimidate her.

The Wraith snarled at her then moved out of her sight towards Rodney. "The Queen wants you two to live long enough to witness the fruits of your labour. If it wasn't for you and Doctor Riley, we would never have been able to get there."

"You bastards. You had this planned the whole time." Alice thrashed furiously against her restraints.

"What are you talking about? Get where?" She could barely hear Rodney now as his voice softened.

"Earth." Alice felt like all the blood in her body had turned to ice. There was no way they had the address, and even of they did they didn't have a hyperdrive capable of the journey. It had to be a bluff. She tried to convince herself, but something in the Wraith's voice told her they'd already started making contingencies for this. It had to have been Michael, no other Wraith knew their systems like he did.

His footsteps echoed as he made one final pass by them with his best threatening sneer then pivoted about leaving them alone in their cocoons. Alice continued to struggle. "Ugh, it's not good. I can't budge. Are you having any luck?" She grunted trying to pull her head forward to see the others.

Ronon was still moving. "Not yet." He replied with a strained voice.

"You're not going to struggle your way out of this. Don't you get it there is no way out." Rodney's ever pessimistic tone rang out in the small room.

"Rodney." She started carefully. "I know you're one for the dramatic. But there's no way i'm going to let them get to Earth so long as i'm alive. So get over yourself and actually be helpful. Or so help me when we get out of here i'll shoot you."

Everyone had stopped moving. "You're starting to sound too much like Sheppard." Even though she couldn't see him she knew Rodney was pouting.

Given their situation and their location it was highly inappropriate but Alice couldn't help but laugh. They would get out of this, even if it was the last thing they did.


	25. Chapter 25

**A/N** Happy Tuesday everyone!

I can't believe we're onto season three already, I never thought I'd be able to write and get through as much of Alice's story as this. Though I feel like I can't imagine SGA without her in it now.

I want to thank everyone again who had been keeping up with this story, it really means a lot and I hope you enjoy what I've got in store for Alice and John this season.

Enjoy the chapter!

Recap -

"The Queen wants you two to live long enough to witness the fruits of your labour. If it wasn't for you and Doctor Riley, we would never have been able to get there."

"You bastards. You had this planned the whole time." Alice thrashed furiously against her restraints.

" _What are you talking about? Get where?" She could barely hear Rodney now as his voice softened._

"Earth."

Chapter 25

—-

Alice let her head rest into the cocoon. She was panting heavily and sweat had started forming on her brow. She'd been struggling non-stop against her restraints for the past few hours and had little to show for it. The Wraith had taken her guns but her knife felt like it was still strapped to her lower back, if only she could reach it.

"They couldn't have. Even if they somehow deduced the location of Earth, they still wouldn't be able to get there - not unless they ..." To keep himself busy, Rodney had started rambling about the Wraith and their plans. She wasn't sure if he was actually expecting an answer. "... they downloaded something along with the hive ship plans. Something like spyware. Something like when I stupidly downloaded porn... music! When I downloaded music. It has to be ... I did this. I'm responsible for the destruction of my own planet."

"If anyone was going to do it, it'd be you." Ronon grunted.

"Ronon." Alice said harshly. While it was probably true, saying it would only make Rodney more unbearable.

"Thank you! Thank you so much for that!" Rodney shrieked, exactly what Alice had wanted to avoid.

"Stop worrying about it now. Just focus." Alice continued her struggle to reach her knife.

"Focus on what?! What is there to focus on?! I'm stuck in a cocoon!" She could hear Rodney thrashing about as if to make his point.

"On getting out of here." She said through gritted teeth.

Though Rodney seem to be on the brink of hysterics. "Oh, right, of course! Why didn't I think of that?! Of course. Here goes ... ummm ... no, still can't move." Ronon grunted loudly, Alice could just see him thrashing against his restraints also attempting to free himself. "I'm pretty sure they're struggle-proof there, big guy."

"Rodney just shut up." Alice hissed.

A tense silence fell over the three of them. Alice sighed and relaxed back into the pod. It was difficult to tell how much time had passed, but she estimated it had to have been a good three or four hours since their Wraith escort had left them. Now Rodney had shut up, she finally had time to think. Something had been bothering her for a while - why were they still alive... surely they'd spent too much time working on the hive's systems and presented a big threat, yet they'd been left alone for hours. It could be that the Wraith typically don't 'eat' straight away, but that seemed unlikely. The only other reason Alice could think of was that the Wraith were planning to use them as leverage - or maybe as a trade.

Alice closed her eyes, trying to think of a plan. The Daedalus and Atlantis would most likely know they'd been taken, but they had no way to know they were still alive. And if this hive really was headed to Earth then they had to do something, anything, to stop it.

"Now, you see, they're actually quite comfortable." Rodney sounded like someone had shot him full of valium. "Surprisingly warm; take all the pressure off the spine. I suppose it's as good a place as any to witness the end of humanity as we know it."

"You're wasting your energy talking." Ronon grunted.

"OK, let's say a magic fairy comes down and grants you one wish and we break out. Then what, huh? We're still in a hive, we're still travelling through hyperspace, probably in the massive void between our two galaxies where there aren't even planets, let alone Stargates. What then, huh? We fly home on the wings of imagination, is that what we do, Ronon?"

"You can sit here and die if you like, but I'm not giving up."

"Oh, fine! I will."

Alice opened her eyes. "That's enough, both of you." She'd never in a million years thought she'd ever have to scold her teammates on board an enemy vessel.

Once again silence enveloped them, but it didn't last. Rodney stayed quiet for all of a few minutes. This time though he seemed to go back to rambling to himself. Ronon continued to entertain him, but Alice was too focused to listen.

Keeping her body relaxed as possible, she managed to free her hand slightly, enough to reach her leg. Now all she needed to do was free her knife.

Rodney's voice suddenly got louder. "Wonder what they'll do to us? Feed on us, probably. I mean, that's ... that's what they do."

"It's not gonna come to that." Ronon tried to reassure him in his blunt manner.

"Maybe." He crooned. "Earth'll probably mount some kind of defence ... in which case I imagine death would be instantaneous. Unless we're trapped on a deck in a fire or something, then we'd be burned alive. Well, burned alive or suffocate. I wonder what'd be worse: being life-sucked by the Wraith or, or, burned alive. I honestly couldn't consider two worse options."

She stretched her fingers as far as she could, her wrist was contorted painfully, but she could barely brush the handle of her knife. "This isn't helping Rodney!" Alice let out a frustrated growl. Throwing herself against the webbing wishing it would come free. But it seemed as strong as ever. She couldn't let anything happen to Earth, it was their responsibility to defend Earth from the plagues of this galaxy.

"Stop talking." Ronon sounded like he was talking through gritted teeth.

"OK, you know what? Make me!" Rodney shouted. Before Alice could yell at him she heard a loud ripping noise and a triumphant yell. "What are you doing?"

Alice twisted her neck as much as she could to see Ronon cutting his way out of the cocoon. "Yes!" She laughed in relief, watching as he pulled himself through the hole he'd made. Once he was out he moved towards her. "Get me out of here." She tried to push her arms as close to her body as possible while Ronon cut through the webbing.

Heaving with all her might, and a helping hand from Ronon, she finally flew out of the cocoon, slamming against her teammates chest. "Thanks!" She sighed gratefully, pushing off him and started stretching out her limbs.

Ronon grunted in reply and slowly made his way over to Rodney's pod.

"What?! Don't just stand there - cut me loose!" Rodney complained.

Alice watched as Ronon stood in front of Rodney with his arms crossed infront of his chest. "Only if you put an end to all this "We're gonna die, there's no hope" talk." He stuck the knife under Rodney's nose.

"Well, now there is hope!" Rodney said staring down the knife's blade. Alice couldn't help but smile, she kicked the remainder of the webbing off her and stepped over beside Ronon.

Ronon smiled slightly, then started to cutting into the webbing on the edge of Rodney's cocoon. "Ready?"

"No!" Rodney screwed up his face.

Ronon made a final cut down the side of the webbing and peeled it back. Rodney tried to pull himself free but didn't move even an inch. "A little help, would you?!"

Alice and Ronon exchanged a quick glance. Then she braced her leg on the wall beside the pod, helping Ronon pull Rodney free.

Rodney slipped put and landed with a heavy thud on his feet. Alice released his arm, flicking her wrist to get the extra goo off her. Rodney started jumping up and down on the spot. "Oh! Oh, it's freezing out here!"

Ronon pointed back at the pod. "Would you prefer to go back in?"

"No!" Rodney shrieked and quickly stepped behind Alice.

"So now what?" He peered over Alice to Rodney.

"What?" Rodney stared at him in bewilderment.

"How do we get out of here?" Ronon said irritably.

"Look, fine, we're out of the cocoons. So what? We're still stuck on the ship and there's no way off without ... well, any survivable way." Rodney attempted to pull the webbing still stuck on him off with no luck.

"It's not a matter of our survival Rodney. That comes second." Alice moved away from Rodney towards the door, hoping there wouldn't be a lock or coded access. "We need to stop this ship. There's no way we can allow it to reach Earth."

"Fine. Can we at least go somewhere else?" Even though it was a complaint, Alice couldn't help but agree with Rodney. She wanted to put as much distance between her and the pods as possible.

"Alright, but we move slowly...and quietly." She emphasised the latter and stared directly at Rodney. Hoping she'd made her point clear she pressed on the control panel. She let out a short breath of relief as it opened into an empty hallway. Cautiously, she poked her head out checking up and down.

"Can you get this off me?" She heard Rodney complain behind her. "It's down my back, down my back."

"Stop whinging and let's go." She said over her shoulder, and stepped out into the corridor.

—

They'd been walking for a good few hours now and they were still no closer to finding their way back to the control room. They were currently hidden in a small alcove off a main passage taking a quick break. Luckily their escape had still seemed to go unnoticed.

"I thought you knew where we were going." Rodney grumbled.

"Me?!" Alice's eyes blazed. "You're the one who had studied all the Wraith schematics and almost led us into the soldiers barracks."

"Well-" Rodney's face flushed bright red.

"Look, every corridor looks the same it's hard to tell one from another but i think we're close." She peered around the corner to check they were still clear.

Ronon had his eyes closed as he rested his head back against the wall. "Stop talking. We need to keep going." His eyes snapped open and he stepped out of their hiding space and disappeared around the corner.

Alice hit Rodney's shoulder shoving him out of their hiding spot. "Let's move Princess."

They moved down the corridor slowly, checking each passageway before they moved. At this moment, Alice wished she still had her lifesigns scanner that was buried in the pocket of her tac-vest and she had no clue where the Wraith would have taken that.

Alice followed behind Ronon, when a massive tremor shook the ship, almost throwing her off her feet.

"What the hell?!" Rodney whispered loudly behind her.

Loud footsteps rushed towards them. Without thinking, Alice grabbed Rodney's collar and threw him into the closest doorway. Ronon took cover opposite them. Alice held her breath as a platoon of Wraith soldiers ran past them. She counted to 20 after they passed, straining her ears to listen for anymore.

Hearing nothing, she looked over to Ronon and nodded. Together they raised their knives and stepped into the corridor. Clear. "The ship's engaged in battle." Ronon put his knife back into his holster.

"With who?" Rodney stepped out of the doorway to join them.

"Doesn't matter." Ronon said bluntly.

"It could be the Daedalus" she looked around them, silently hoping it was their ship. "but even if it's not we need to get moving."

Ronon grunted in approval and led them further down the corridor. "Wait! Wait!" Alice grabbed Ronon's shoulder before he could go any further. "This is it!" She stepped down a small passage, that was almost hidden by the organic wall.

"Are you sure?" Rodney sounded doubtful.

"Definitely." Confidently, she rushed down and activated a door control. She looked back smugly as it opened it to reveal the main control room - Deserted as it had been yesterday.

Rodney huffed in what Alice decided was admiration and followed her into the hallway, eventually moving past her into the room.

Ronon followed a few steps behind, as he got to the door he jerked his head indicating for her to go in.

Alice sheathed her knife and joined Rodney at the panel. "Remember, you can't access..."

"Yes. Yes. Yes." Rodney tapped vigorously on the interface. Alice watched him work quietly for a few minutes, not wanting to interrupt his flow.

Ronon stepped closer towards them. "Have you done it yet?"

"The ship has been seriously damaged." Alice said, reading the latest damage report Rodney had managed to put up on the display.

"Yeah, that's an understatement. It's actually hard for me to _find_ something to overload." Rodney squinted at the report.

"Let Mikey try it."

Alice almost jumped out of her skin at John's voice. She spun around to see him with his signature lopsided grin in full gear, standing in the doorway with Michael beside him. "John?! What the hell are you doing here?!"

Ronon instantly pulled out his knife from of his sleeve and pointed it at Michael.

John threw his hands up at him, stepping between Michael and Ronon. "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. He's helping us."

"Where did you come from?!" Rodney was staring wide eyed at him.

John had a smug look on his face. "I managed to latch onto the hull of the hive before we went into hyperspace." He glanced over at Alice. "I thought you might be a bit more pleased to see me."

Ronon nodded, obviously impressed. "Nice move."

"Saw it in a movie once." He replied, she had to stop herself from rolling her eyes.

"I guess I'm glad you're here." She shrugged, but the corner or her eyes crinkled as she smiled, giving her away.

Another explosion sounded above them shaking the ship. They all looked up as the ceiling groaned. All smiles faded.

"We've gotta get to the Daedalus." John said, more urgency in his voice now.

"The Daedalus? The Daedalus is here?" Rodney was going hysterical again, this time Alice did slap him.

"We've got other priorities Rodney!" She pointed back to the screen.

"First we need to get to the transport." Michael muttered, looking unsettled.

Alice's face turned into a scowl, as glad as she was to see John, she was not happy to see their failed experiment.

Ronon had a similar dark expression on his face. "Now, why should we trust you?"

Michael looked between Alice and him, taking a step closer to Ronon. "Because I'm trusting you." His voice was strong, Alice tensed as Michael reached into his jacket. But stopped herself as he offered Ronon his blaster.

Without hesitating Ronon took it off him. Michael seemed to take this as a silent agreement. However, the instant Michael turned his back Ronon cocked his blaster and aimed it at the back of Michael's head.

John was too quick though, as though he'd anticipated it, his hand shot out grabbing the gun and pushed it down. "Because _I_ said so." He said forcefully. Alice wanted to tell him to take the shot. The galaxy would be better off without him - but she held her tongue.

He let go of the gun, knowing Ronon wouldn't blatantly disobey him. "Riles." He pulled out a spare handgun and passed it to her. He took his eyes off Ronon for a second to give her a quick once over. "You okay?"

"Thanks." She took the gun eagerly, feeling a familiar surge of adrenaline and control she got whenever she had her weapon. "I'll be better once we're off this ship."

John smiled and turned to follow Michael out. Alice jerked her head for Rodney to go ahead of her, then she followed giving Ronon a side glance, he was still standing in the same spot looking murderous.

They made their way through the ship easily now, as Michael kept them hidden down small passageways and away from the main Wraith patrols. John held his hand up, gesturing for the team to hold. Alice moved a couple of steps forward and took in their surroundings. Ahead of them where John, Michael and Rodney stood was a door and they were blocking the only corridor towards it. Alice re-adjusted her grip on her gun, they were in a strategically vulnerable position if a Wraith patrol came up behind them they'd be stuck against the door with nowhere to hide. Ronon stood beside her, aiming his gun down the length of the hall, as if expecting the Wraith to appear any minute.

"Riles, Ronon." John whispered. He gave them a series of hand signals that told them they were about to head through the doorway and he needed the two of them to cover their backs.

Alice returned a signal acknowledging the plan. She cast another glance behind them, before spinning around to follow the others through the doorway. Sticking to the left, she burst through the doorway into the hanger bay of the Hive ship, holding her gun out ahead of her she cleared her side. Seeing nothing, she turned over her shoulder to check Ronon. He dipped his head and they quickly moved to follow John and the others towards a small transport ship.

Just as the door closed behind them. Ronon pushed past Alice and overtook Rodney to grab John's jacket, pulling him around to face him. "What are you doing?" She stared at him wide-eyed.

"I don't like this." Ronon growled.

"You got a better idea?" John held Ronon's glare.

"Yeah. We take this ship on our own and leave him here."

John pointed to Michael standing over the main controls, who seemed oblivious to the small confrontation going on behind him. "He's the reason I'm alive right now."

"Besides, I don't think that's even possible. It took us days to crack the Wraith Dart interface, and this ship is a whole lot bigger." The words tasted bitter in her mouth, she hated the idea of protecting Michael, but he was their best shot to get off this ship.

"I don't like it." Ronon continued stubbornly.

John pulled Ronon's hands off his jacket. "Yeah, I get it. You hate the Wraith."

"Him in particular." Ronon narrowed his eyes at the Wraith. Alice couldn't help but agree with him.

John sighed, then turned to Rodney and Alice. "Is there anything you can do to boost a radio signal? I wanna reach the _Daedalus_ as soon as possible."

"I can try." Rodney turned to the nearest console.

Michael was already sat down in the main pilot's chair. "Hang on: they'll most likely open fire on us the second we leave the Bay"

"Oh, great! The day just gets better and better." Rodney threw his hands up in the air dramatically.

"Okay, everyone strap in." John headed for the co-pilot's seat. Alice sat at what she assumed was the navigation controls, whilst Ronon just strode behind Michael's chair and stayed standing.

Michael looked at him, his expression stoney. "Fine." Without another word he turned and started powering up the ship.

Unlike the Jumper's the Wraith transport wasn't a pleasant ride. The whole ship shook as they shot out of the Hive's hanger bay at close to top speed.

"Now, Rodney!" John called through gritted teeth.

Rodney reached out and slapped on the controls. "Okay!" He yelled back, then clenched the chair in a vice like grip.

"This is Colonel John Sheppard. Authentication code Alpha Seven Tango Three. Please respond."

They waited in tense silence. If the Daedalus didn't pick up their signal then, soon, both ships would be firing at them.

"Colonel Sheppard. We'd written you off." Alice let out a sigh of relief at Caldwell's voice, and grinned at Rodney who looked ready to be sick.

"Don't get all emotional on me now! Look, I've got McKay, Ronon, Riley and Michael aboard a Wraith transport."

"Michael?!" Alice wasn't surprised at Caldwell's tone. Michael's change of heart had been the last thing she'd expected today as well. Not that she was about to let her guard down around him.

"Yes, sir. And he's got a plan I think you're gonna like. But it probably won't be long before they start shooting at us." As it they'd heard John, Alice was thrown out of her seat as an explosion rocked the ship and overloaded the console in front of her.

By the time she opened her eyes she found herself laying on the bridge of the Daedalus looking straight at Colonel Caldwell. "Aly!" Evan was beside her brushing her hair back so he could look at her face.

"I'm good." She smiled, pushing her friend's hand away and getting to her feet.

John was looking at her, and once he saw she was standing and okay he looked at Caldwell. "Colonel." John dipped his head respectfully.

Caldwell didn't waste any time on pleasantries. "Colonel, you said something about a plan?"

"I've disabled their jamming code, but it's only a matter of time before they realise." Michael stepped forward to explain.

"All you have to do is send over a nuke." John said with a bit too much satisfaction in his voice.

Evan stayed standing next to Alice as they watched the officers discuss the plan. "We thought all of you were gone."

"Honestly, we got lucky the Wraith didn't seem particularly hungry." She attempted to joke, but her smile faded as she saw the concern on Evan's face. She cleared her throat. "We're all here." She said lowly, not wanting to interrupt the conversation.

"We deployed all our warheads in the first attack." Caldwell rubbed his hand along his jaw.

"The hive is launching Darts, sir." One of the officers announced.

Alice and Evan turned to look out the main window behind them, to see a wave of ships approaching.

"Open up those bays, all batteries!" Caldwell yelled.

Alice watched as tracers from the Daedalus' railguns sprayed into the swarm. The Dart bays soon exploded the shockwave engulfing the few Darts that had managed to leave the ship.

The Hive wasted no time in returning fire. Alice had to brace herself against the nearest station as explosions rocked the ship. Alarms sounded everywhere, and Alice knew exactly what it meant. They'd just lost their shields.

The bridge exploded into a flurry of sparks and fire as the next few shots directly hit their hull. Alice watched helplessly as the pilot was thrown out of his seat. Evan ripped a extinguisher off the wall and started tackling the nearest fires.

John jumped into the pilot's seat and Alice raced for the pilot. His injuries were bad, but the fires had cortorised the wounds. A small mercy. Thankfully, the Hive seemed to have stopped firing, another crew member dropped to their knees to help Alice apply some emergency aid.

Satisfied the pilot was out of immediate danger Alice tapped the other crew members shoulder. "Get him to the infirmary now." He nodded and threw the injured man over his shoulder in a fireman's lift.

Alice stood up and shakily made her way to the pilot's console where John was now sitting.

"Ship's status?" Caldwell looked around his burning bridge.

"Shields completely depleted, and we're venting atmosphere." The lead officer reported.

Caldwell sat down in the captain's chair the strain showing on his face. "Seal off all affected decks."

"Yes, sir, but that last blast took out our life support and the back-ups aren't responding. As of right now, we're shallow breathing."

"Meaning?" Ronon looked at the perplexed.

"Meaning that in a little under nine hours, we're all gonna suffocate." Rodney said in his gloomy voice.

"Riles." John's voice was tight.

Alice knew exactly what he was going to say. Life support was their first priority. "We're on it!" She grabbed Rodney's arm in a vice like grip and headed out the door running towards the core engine room.

—

Alice took in a shallow breath. It couldn't have been more than 20 minutes and yet their air supply had started thinning already, they probably only had six or seven hours left now.

Alice was alone in the engine room, as Rodney and Radek had gone off to check on the other teams creating make-shift CO2 scrubbers. Hopefully they would be able to buy them a few more hours.

Alice rolled her shoulders back and forth, open in front of her were several Asgard crystal trays. The life support trays had been completely blasted, so she was hoping to cannibalise pieces from secondary systems. But, her progress was slow. The secondary crystals just weren't designed to run something as complicated as the life support.

"Alice! Take this." Rodney appeared beside her a breathing mask covering his face and another one held out towards her.

Alice shook her head. "There are people who need it more than I do." Though it felt like it was taking more and more effort to draw in a breath.

Rodney didn't take no for an answer. "We need life support up and operational as soon as possible. And you won't be able to do that oxygen deprived. Now take it." He wasn't normally this forceful, so Alice reached out and pulled the mask over her head, twisting the valve allowing a small amount of oxygen to flow into the mask.

Instantly, she felt her head clear and a renewed spurt of energy. She had't realise how much the lack of oxygen had been affecting her. "Thanks Rodney." Her voice muffled because of the mask.

He nodded, his eyes full of worry as he turned and headed for the main work station. Alice took in a few more deep breaths and then took the mask off. She needed this supply to last as long as possible.

She was glad Rodney hadn't asked how she was doing. Without proper replacements, she wasn't sure she could actually fix this.

—

Alice felt her body shivering, an unfortunate side effect of the failing life support was the ship temperature was starting to plummet. She took a laboured breath as her hands shakily placed a crystal back into the tray. She tapped a few buttons on her tablet, but a red box flashed up. "Dammit!" She cursed.

Alice jumped as a warm jacket suddenly covered her back, accompanied by a hand resting on her lower back. "No luck?" John's concerned face appeared next to hers.

She thought about spinning the truth, maybe try to give him some hope. But he would see right through her, so she sighed dejectedly. "We just don't have the parts to fix it." It wasn't usual that she felt like they had hit a dead end. But Rodney's pessimism seemed to be contagious. "John...I."

"I know. But we're not giving up yet." He rubbed her back quickly up and down to warm her up. He smiled at her, but Alice could tell he was just as worried as her. "Come on, Rodney has called a meeting. Hopefully he's come up with a genius plan to save the day."

He stood up, and offered his hand. Alice took it gratefully. But she swayed as she stood, the lack of oxygen making her woozy. She pulled her mask on and took in a few deep breaths, waiting for her head to clear. John's eyes stayed on her face, waiting for her to say she was okay. "Let's go." She said horsely through the mask.

The others were already in the room as John and Alice entered. All of them were standing around the table, although they looked almost ready to collapse. All of them were breathing hard, even Michael. Alice deliberately put as much space between him and her as she could.

"The only breathable air within light years is on the Wraith ship." Rodney explained.

"There's also Wraith aboard that Wraith ship, Doctor." Caldwell wasn't trying to be difficult, it looked like no one had it in them at the moment to argue. But he did have a point. They were in no position to take on a whole hive.

"So we take 'em. Beam an assault team in." John said in true military fashion.

Michael shook his head. "You will be far outnumbered."

"Well, we're dead here. I'll take my chances." John crossed his arms over his chest.

"So will I." Alice held her head up. She'd take death in a fire fight over asphyxiation any day.

Michael almost smiled. "I admire both of your courage, but you would be dead there as surely as here. Unless we send over the gas."

Rodney clicked his fingers quickly, the way he always does when he has a plan. "Yes, yes, yes! That could work!"

"The retrovirus gas would make them virtually harmless." Michael agreed.

John turned to Caldwell. "Do we still have it on board?"

Caldwell looked close to smiling. "Yes, we do. And now that Michael's disabled their jamming codes ..."

"... we finish the plan we started!" Rodney interrupted.

The atmosphere of the room seemed to lighten as the plan started coming together. "We beam over the gas and wait. If we wait long enough, they won't even wanna put up a fight." John glanced eagerly between Alice and Rodney. Alice pursed her lips, she didn't want to be the one to burst their bubble, but they didn't exactly have a lot of air left.

"Because they'll be humans with no memories! I can't believe we might actually survive this!" Rodney laughed.

Caldwell shook his head. "We're almost out of breathable air now, and the retrovirus takes a minimum ten hours to run its course."

As if someone switched on lightbulb in her head, an idea popped in Alice's head. "We can take the crew in and out of the 302s and we can drop the temperature of the heating. It'll get cold in here but it should give us a bit more time."

John was smiling now. "If this works, can you fly the hive ship?"

Michael nodded. "I could."

John held out his hands. "What d'you say, Colonel?"

Caldwell activated his headset. "Weaps, get us within beaming range of the hive."

Alice went to head out the door, already thinking of what she needed to prepare, but John grabbed her hand. "Come with me." He whispered, leading her out of the room and into his quarters a couple doors down.

"What are we doing?" Alice watched as he closed the door behind them. "We don't have a lot of time, and even if this works-"

John stopped her with a kiss. "It'll work." She sighed and rested her forehead against his. "It has to. We've survived worse than this."

Alice let out a breathy laugh. "Really? You're using that line. We're definitely screwed."

John kissed her again. "Whatever happens, you're not allowed to give up on me, ever. And that's an order, got it?"

She raised an eyebrow. "You still think you can order me around."

"Well, are you going to refuse it?" He kissed her again.

"I'll never give up on you." She said pointedly, gazing up into his hazel eyes. "I promise."

"Then I promise to never let you down." He pulled her tightly against him. Alice closed her eyes and inhaled his scent, she wished that they could stay like this, let everyone else deal with the problems.

But that wasn't how this worked. Reluctantly she pulled back, John raised his hand to stroke the side of her face. "Sorry, but i've got to go save the day." She said trying to keep a straight face.

John chuckled. "Isn't that my line?"

She pushed away from him and opened the door. "Not today flyboy." She winked and then taking a final look at John then took off down the corridor towards the labs.

—-

Alice stepped over one of her fellow crew members who was resting against a sealed bulkhead. They only had a limited number of breathing masks and those who weren't essential to the repairs just had to hope their plan worked. Every corridor was now filled with crew members, sitting and lying down against the walls trying to conserve their dwindling oxygen supply.

Alice had tried to conserve her limited oxygen supply as much as she could, leaving it off for as long as she could stand before taking a few breaths. But the air was getting so thin now in order to keep a clear head, she'd attached it to her face.

Her gut churned as she stepped over and watched the crew struggle for breath. But the quicker she could finish her tasks the better it would be for everyone. She only needed a few more seconds.

"Riles." John's voice wheezed over the radio.

From the sound of it, they were out of time. "We're coming to you now." She closed her laptop and grabbed Rodney by the arm dragging him towards the bridge.

Together they stumbled their way into the bridge. Caldwell and Kleinman were still in their seats, but they seemed barely conscious. John, Evan and an assault team were sitting on the floor behind the control centre, geared up and their holding rifles.

"Our CO2 levels are getting dangerous, sir." Kleinman blinked at the screen, his voice weak.

"The gas has barely had a chance to run its course." Caldwell seemed equally weak.

Alice knelt down next to John and started taking of her mask to offer it to him. He shook his head, and shakily stood up. "We don't have much of a choice." Evan and the rest of the team also struggled up. "We've gotta go now."

Unsteady on their feet John led the team to a clear area, preparing them to beam aboard the ship. Evan hung back to walk beside Alice. "Stop worrying, you know it'll give you wrinkles." He reached out and poked her forehead weakly, which felt like it had permanently creased into a frown. "Hey, the gas isn't dangerous to us right?"

Alice smiled, even though he couldn't see it under her mask. "No Evan. You're perfectly safe."

He returned her smile, placing his hand on her shoulder affectionately. But Alice could also tell he was barely holding himself up. Finally John stopped and they gathered close together. He did a quick glance around and tapped his ear. "Ready to beam."

Alice exhaled as the white light engulfed her. When she blinked they were back in the familiar dark corridors of the hive ship. If she could have it her way she'd never step foot in another one of these ever again. But that wasn't likely to happen.

The soldiers took in gasps of the air. Alice twisted the supply of her air off and pulled the mask down from her face. Taking in her own deep breaths.

No one moved for a minute as they all tried to catch their breath and to re-oxygenate their bodies.

John held up his hand and motioned down the corridor. He moved cautiously, Alice fell into step beside Evan. There hadn't been time for her to fully gear-up, and although she felt bare without her tac gear having Evan, John and Ronon beside her made her feel secure.

They'd not gone far when they came across their first Wraith. It was lying on the floor away from them. It was hard to tell from where she was standing whether the gas had taken effect or if something else had happened.

John signalled for them to hold, as he cautiously stepped forward, his gun aimed directly at its head. Slowly he knelt down by its face and waved a hand over its face.

Everyone tensed, awaiting a response, but other than a slight groan it didn't move.

Silently, John motioned them forward. Evan took the lead with one of the other marines. As Alice shuffled forward she was finally able to see the face of the Wraith. Instead of the pale skin she expected to see, a human face looking back at her.

When she looked up, John had walked over to another Wraith lying on its side and gently kicked it over onto its back. This time there was no reaction, John squated down beside it. "Some of them are dead." He said, keeping his voice low.

Evan stepped forward to examine another couple of bodies just a few paces away. "Looks like they killed each other."

"What's happened?" Alice pulled her gun from its holster as they all spun around towards the unfamiliar voice. Standing there stunned was a human looking Wraith holding his hand up to block the lights from his eyes.

Alice swallowed hard, taking two breaths before lowering her gun. It went against all her instincts, but John had motioned for them to lower their guns. She kept her finger hovering to the side of the trigger.

"Alright. It's alright." He said calmly to the former Wraith, then he flicked his hand towards one of the soldiers. "Find a holding area; start marshalling the survivors there."

The man nodded and the group split up. Keeping their rifles low, but ready, the group of soldiers led the confused Wraith/human away to a side chamber. Evan, Rodney, Ronon and John stayed with Alice.

Rodney pointed in the opposite direction the soldiers were heading. "The Queen's Chamber should be that way."

Alice cast one last look at the Wraith on the ground before quickly following the rest of her team.

They moved swiftly, only passing a few Wraith/human hybrids. They radioed in their positions and told them to stay put. So far none of them had shown any signs of hostility.

They stopped moving when they reached the Queen's chambers. Alice watched John intently as he signalled out their orders. Raising her gun she moved into position behind the team, allowing John and Evan to take the sides and Ronon to cover the front. Rodney stayed protectively in the middle of them.

John raised his index finger, then as he dropped it they moved in. Alice checked her corners, and could see the Queen slumped on the floor against her throne. No one else seemed to be here.

"Hello?" John called out warily. Together with Evan, he walked toward her. Alice tensed as she watched the Queen stir weakly. "You alright?"

Evan lowered his gun. "It's OK. You're gonna be alright now." His voice was soothing. He reached out to help her, as fast lightening the Queen had him by the throat and lifted him clear off the floor.

Roaring, she raised her hand, preparing to feed on him. Without hesitating, John, Ronon, Alice and even Rodney opened fire on her until she dropped Evan and fell to the floor.

Evan groaned and rolled over painfully onto his back. "Evan!" Alice rushed to his side, unzipping his vest and pressing his ribs, checking for any breaks.

"It didn't work on her." Evan managed to wheeze out as Alice prodded him, she cast a quick glance up to the dead Queen.

Rodney stared wide-eyed at them. "Oh. Beckett _wondered_ if the females would be immune."

Both Alice and Evan stared dumbfounded at him. "Yeah. Something you might have mentioned _before_ she almost killed me, Rodney." He yelled exasperatedly.

"I only thought of it now." He tried to defend himself.

"Well luckily nothing seems broken. Though you might be sore for a few weeks." She pulled his vest back together and helped him up to his feet.

"Thanks Aly." He winced as he stretched out.

Their radios crackled. "Colonel Sheppard. So far we haven't run into a single Wraith, sir."

"Understood." He looked down to switch the channel on his radio. "Sheppard to Daedalus."

"Go ahead." Alice breathed a slight sigh of relief that the Colonel was still conscious.

"You can start sending people over, sir. They're all human and the air is good. I think we're out of the woods." He had a small smile on his lips, but Alice looked down at the snarling Queen's face and felt a shiver run up the back of her spine. Something told her their troubles weren't over yet.


	26. Chapter 26

**A/N** What a better way to end the weekend then with an unexpected chapter update!

I hope you enjoy this one!

A little hint about the next one: It will be entirely in John's POV.

Alice felt the ground shaking. She groaned and tried to pull away from the source. But it didn't work. "Riles, i'm sorry we need you. You have to get up." It was only then did she realise it wasn't the ground shaking, but someone was shaking her. She yawned and blinked open her eyes, leaning over her was John. He looked like hell. Dark shadows under his eyes made him look like someone had given him a black eye. Though she was pretty sure if she had a mirror she'd look exactly the same - if not worse.

Alice was laying in a small alcove behind the bridge on the hive ship, using John's jacket as a makeshift pillow. The floor was cold and she could feel it seeping through her clothes and her skin, chilling her to the bone. She pulled herself up into a sitting position and rubbed her head, John held out a small canteen of water. Muttering a small thank you, she took it gratefully and had a few small sips even though she was desperate to down the whole container.

She handed him back the canteen and stretched out, her sides felt bruised from laying on the hard ground, and her head was groggy. "How long have i been out?" Her voice still full of sleep.

John gave her a sympathetic look. "Just under an hour. I tried to give you as much as possible, but Rodney needs you."

Alice shook her head. "I'll take what i can get." She gave him a weak smile. "You should lay down, you look ready to collapse." Reaching out she stroked his face, tracing the dark bruises under his eyes.

He closed his eyes briefly pressing into her hand and inhaled deeply. "Come on."

She knew there was no point arguing with him. It had been over four days and he'd had less sleep than the rest of them. John helped her to her feet and led the way back into the bridge. Michael was stood at the helm, with Ronon closely shadowing him. Rodney was cursing to himself down underneath a main control panel. Slightly alarmed, Alice picked up her pace her eyes now fully alert. "What are you doing? I just finished calibrating these pathways."

Rodney cursed as sparks flew out from the panel, Alice held up her arms to protect her face. "Well, whatever you did we're draining power like no ones business and if we don't fix it soon we'll lose the hyperdrive and all life support. We wouldn't want that AGAIN, now would we?!" He looked at her accusingly.

She ripped the tablet out of his hands. "Give me that and move aside before you blow us up." The lack of sleep and food had everyone on edge, but Rodney was particularly insufferable. She tapped harder than she needed to on the tablet, bringing up a schematic of the new power grid pathways she'd built to regulate the flow of power, cutting off the damaged sections and systems of the ship. "There!" She turned the screen back to Rodney. "The pathways I created are fine, the problem is the engines. Someone miscalculated the amount of power they'd need, so were draining power from the Hive hull regeneration, which we need or the ship will break up."

Rodney eyes widened. "So...my calculations are wrong?" He sounded like it was one of the most implausible theories in the universe.

"Not wrong..." she sighed. "Just well...yeah they're wrong." She unplugged the tablet. "We need to find a way to cut more power." Alice tried to not sound as snappy, everyone was feeling the same pressure it wasn't fair to take it out on the others - even if that's how some of the others were dealing with it. She cast a side glance back at Rodney.

"Divert power from the weapons systems." Michael called from the helm.

Alice and Rodney both spun to look at him in surprise. "Are...are you sure? What if we run into trouble?"

"This ship is fast than any other hive. We would be able to escape." Michael said plainly. Alice narrowed her eyes at him, he'd been suffering the same conditions as the rest of them, worse probably cause it wasn't like they were going to allow him to feed. Though despite what they knew already about the Wraith, Alice wasn't sure how long they could go without feeding before it affected them detrimentally.

Alice looked at John. He seemed conflicted but finally nodded. "Alright, do it. The sooner we get back to Atlantis the better."

"Okay then." She still wasn't convinced, but she wasn't about to question John. He was right, they needed to get back sooner rather than later.

They'd worked quickly, making the necessary adjustments. Then Rodney had fallen asleep in his chair. John had gone to debrief Caldwell and the other teams, leaving Alice alone with Michael.

"You know helping us, doesn't change anything." She kept her eyes focused on the controls in front of her.

"Without me you would all be dead, including your precious Sheppard." Michael sneered.

"Don't act like this was some noble act." Alice spat, standing up to face him. "You only did this cause the Wraith would have killed you along side us. If we didn't need you to fly this…" Stepping towards him Alice held out her finger accusingly.

Michael snarled, and jerked forward. Instinctively Alice pulled out her handgun. They stayed frozen like that for a moment - Alice's finger hovering over the trigger. "Do it and you'll never make it back to your city." Michael relaxed holding his arms out to his sides. "Though I know how much you want to." Closing his eyes he inhaled deeply. "I can sense your anger, and fear."

Alice re-adjusted her grip. "Shit…" Scrunching up her face she lowered her gun. Keeping it down to her side she approached Michael, her gaze as cold as ice. "The next time I have my gun on you, will be the last time you breath."

Michael smiled, showing his pointed teeth. "I look forward to it."

—-

Alice sat in the corridor, it had been six days now and she was running on a total of about six hours sleep. It felt like she would collapse at any moment, yet she still managed to keep going. It felt like someone was playing a cruel joke on her, as every time she sat down, or closed her eyes, something else went wrong. The ship was falling apart and at this point was being held together by willpower and duct tape.

Sitting with her back against the wall and her knees pulled up to her chest with her head hanging inbetween them, she tried to close her eyes.

"Hey. I grabbed this for you." She felt a warm body slide down next to her. Looking up, John had a MRE pack and was holding out one of the nutrition bars for her.

It looked incredibly unappetising, but she still took it and bit down instantly. "Thanks." She mumbled between bites. John pulled out the rest of the food from the MRE and began eating. This was probably going to be their only meal for the day. Their ration of water sat between them in a small canteen. Silently they ate their food. When Alice finished she threw the wrapper across the hallway and rested her head onto John's shoulder. He shuffled back and wrapped his arm around her, pulling her in closer. "Did Michael say how much longer he thinks it'll take?"

John sighed, pressing his cheek against her forehead. "A day or two max and that's if the hyperdrive doesn't give out." He stared drawing circles on her arm with his thumb. "Any luck with the comms system?"

Now it was Alice's turn to sigh. "The circuits are fried, and we don't have any spares or a way to retrofit a fix. We have short range operational, but we'll almost have to be ontop of Atlantis to get them to work." She hesitated. "Hopefully, we can get that close before they open fire."

No one had said it out loud, but going almost a week with no contact. Atlantis would have no choice but to consider them MIA or possibly even KIA. They also wouldn't take too kindly to the ship they believed destroyed their people bearing down upon the city. "We'll get through, don't worry." Alice wished she had his confidence. They were barely running on vapour. "Though, this was the last of the rations." He held up the empty MRE pack.

She bit down on her lip. "The water?" He shook his head silently. Closing her eyes, she said a silent prayer that the hyperdrive would last as long as they needed it to.

"Hey. Remember what you promised me." John wrapped her tighter in his arms. "You're not allowed to give up." He pressed his lips to her temple. "We're going to get through this." His last words were barely louder than a whisper as he said them against her skin.

Alice felt tears burning at the corners of her eyes. Hoping he wouldn't notice, she buried her face into him, breathing in his sat like that for a short while, it felt as though John's arms were the only thing hold her together. Alice wished she could stay like this, pretending that they were back home in Atlantis rather than stranded on a broken ship. But dwelling on it wasn't going to change the situation, she'd learned a long time ago that giving up hope was often the thing that got you killed. So instead, she turned pecking John on the cheek. "You really should try and get some sleep. You're not superman okay?"

He held his hand to her chest like she'd wounded him. "We all know I'm more batman than superman?" He gave her a charming grin, but he closed his eyes and Alice felt him relax into her.

It wasn't long before his breathing slowed. She smiled and closed her own eyes, matching her own breathing to John's.

—-

Alice stood on the bridge, it was the busiest she'd seen it in almost a week. Everyone was tense, they were about to drop out of hyperspace over Lantea. There was no doubt in her mind Atlantis would have cloaked itself, but whether they would fire immediately or not was another question.

"You sure the comms systems are functioning, right?" John asked her for the tenth time.

"For the last time, yes." She said, trying to keep the annoyance out of her voice.

"Okay, we are coming out of hyperspace in 5, 4, 3, 2..." Michael's voice trailed off and Alice felt the ship lurch forward as it left the hyperspace window.

John pressed the comms button and started broadcasting immediately. "Atlantis, this is Sheppard, come in."

"John?!" Teyla's surprised and relieved voice echoed around the bridge. Alice let out the breath she'd been holding as everyone else cheered.

"They made it?!" Elizabeth voice sounded choked with emotion.

John had a grin across his face, he looked at Alice as he spoke. "We're out of food and water and we haven't slept in days but, yeah, we made it. So now would not be a good time to fire on us." He started strolling around the bridge happily. "After all, wouldn't wanna damage our new hive ship."

A series of cheer, tears and wails went up from the crew. Alice felt like they'd never make it back to the city, she started laughing, tears prickling the edges of her eyes.

—-

Alice stood under the cascading water of the shower. Her muscles ached and her eyes could barely stay open, but it felt good to wash away the stench of the Wraith ship.

They'd made it back, and in one piece. Though it still wasn't the happy ending they'd pictured. In fact it was far from it. It turned out Elizabeth had been recalled to Earth and her leadership was under question by the IOA. John had almost stepped through the gate himself to beat some sense into the IOA members. Luckily they'd been able to explain why that would be a terrible idea, John's diplomatic skills still left a lot to be desired, and if anyone could handle this situation it was Elizabeth. They also couldn't be without their acting commander, something they desperately needed right now.

Another situation they hadn't accounted for, was what to do with the two hundred or so converted Wraith that were currently residing in the hive ships hibernation bays. Unsurprisingly, Ronon wanted to kill them all. But even Alice felt wrong about that, Whether they liked it or not, they were now responsible for these souls - if they really did have souls.

Alice turned off the shower. She didn't want to think about it right now, she wanted to close her eyes and shut out the world. Grabbing her towel she stepped out of the shower, stopping to look in the mirror as she walked past. Her hair looked almost black slicked against her face, matching the deep bruises that lay under her eyes. In the mirror she could see John sat on the edge of her bed, his hands covering his face as his head hung down towards his lap. Though she hadn't heard him come in, she wasn't surprised to see him. His hair was also wet so he must've come straight to hers after cleaning up.

Alice walked straight to her drawers and grabbed out one of his black shirts he kept there and pulled it over her head. It draped over her hips and almost down to her mid-thigh. John still had his head in his hands, so she walked over and sat down next to him placing her hand on his thigh. "You okay?"

He lifted his head and covered her hand with his. "Yeah, just thinking."

Alice searched his face, trying to read his expression. "About?" She prodded.

"Michael, and his...kind." He said hesitantly. Finally he turned to look at her, his face was almost a grimace. "You were right, we shouldn't have done this. But what can we do now..." she knew he wasn't actually asking her, it was something neither of them really had an answer to.

"All we can do is hope Carson has developed a way to make it permanent and that this time turns out different." She swung her legs over John's and rested her head on his shoulder. He mumbled something, but Alice couldn't quite make it out. Lifting her head, she used her hand to gently guide John's over to her. "Can we just forget about everything? Just for a moment." She gazed into his eyes, sensing the worry and fear within them. Closing her eyes she pressed her lips to his.

John responded slowly, but Alice felt his arm wrapping around her waist drawing her into him. Then his shoulders moved back and Alice felt herself being lowered back onto the bed. Their kisses suddenly became more passionate, John's fingers ran up her naked thigh a small moan escaped her lips as his fingers gripped her hips.

A deep growl emanated from his chest, as she dragged her fingers through his messy hair. "You're so-" Alice crashed her lips back onto his, interrupting whatever he'd been about to say. Digging her nails in softly, she ran her fingers over his scalp and down his neck. Pausing at the neck of his shirt, arching her back she grabbed a fistful of the black material and pulled it over his head. Momentarily breaking their kiss. John sat up pulling his shirt the rest of the way over his head and throwing it away into the darkness of the room.

Alice felt her chest rising up and down, her heart rate increasing as she watched John's eyes roaming over her. Reaching up she spread her fingers out across his stomach. John closed his eyes as she gently traced the outline of his muscles. She couldn't help but smirk as his breathing hitched when her fingertips brushed against his pants. Slowly, Alice pulled his belt out of the buckle. She jumped slightly as his hands wrapped around hers, and before she knew it he had them pinned above her head in one hand. The other hand grabbed the outer side of her thighs, pulling it up against his body. Lowering his chest towards hers, he placed soft kisses against her jaw. Alice groaned as his hand slid up her thigh pulling her shirt up with it.

A cold breeze blew against her, and she shuddered as John's metal dog tags dropped onto the skin between her breasts. Her eyes heavy, she dropped her head back, her lips parting as she focused on every small touch and kiss John left on her.

"We're going to be late." Alice muttered to herself standing at the mirror pressing a small dab of foundation to her neck, trying to cover up the purple love bite John had left on her skin overnight.

"What if we just didn't go?" John snuck up behind her wrapping his arms around her, pulling her up onto her tip toes as he layered kisses down her collar bone. Alice had to suppress her moan, but the slight trembling of her legs gave her away. John let out a a breathy chuckle, but continued his work trailing his lips over her skin.

Alice closed her eyes, feeling herself giving into the sensation. "It would-" She tried to talk, but John bit down at the base of her neck. This time she couldn't hold back the small cry of pleasure. "John." She spun around in his arms, his hands instantly went to the back of her hips, pulling her up so she could wrap her legs around his waist. Then he moved them back so she was sitting on the edge of the sink.

"Just us, remember?" He growled against her as he hooked his hands into the lacy material of her panties.

Alice couldn't think clearly after that, the overwhelming sensation of John all around her. His dog tags crashing back and forth into her skin, as her nails dug into the muscular skin of his back.

* * *

"So, we're going to do it all again?" Alice asked the table. Sat in the conference room was her team, Carson and via video conference was Elizabeth. Apparently she was on board an Asgard ship enroute back to Atlantis. They'd finally made it out of the room to the briefing - 20 minutes late. And Carson had just caught them up on the plan.

"This time will be different, we've already made significant progress on the retrovirus since we used it on Michael." Carson tried to sound convincing. Alice felt her skin crawl as he said Michael's name, despite spending a week in close proximity on board the ship, the sight of him still filled her with anger.

"We've selected a suitable world, with no gate and only accessible by ship." John had his feet propped up casually on the table, a slight smirk playing on his lips. He'd been like that since they'd left her room this morning. He seemed particularly cocky now.

Elizabeth nodded considering the options. "Okay, set it up. Alice and Rodney, I need you both working on the Daedalus. We need her operational as soon as possible." Alice looked at Rodney and they both nodded. They exchange quick goodbyes and then Elizabeth's screen went blank.

"How come you don't get yelled at when you're late." Alice overhead Rodney complaining to John.

"Just lucky I guess." John smirked, his eyes flickering over to Alice. She pressed her lips together, trying to stop her face from flushing.

Rodney didn't sound convinced. "Sure."

Alice dashed out of the room as quick as she could, almost running into Evan on the way out. "Whoops, sorry."

Evan held his arms up catching her shoulders. "Where's the fire Aly?" He looked back between her and the others now walking out from the conference room.

"Hey, what. No. Nowhere." She cringed internally at her flustered reply. She swallowed. "Sorry, I'm just a bit out of sorts this morning." She didn't miss the smirk that spread across John's face as he walked past.

And it looked like Evan didn't either. He watched John move past them out of his eyes, before leaning down close to Alice's ear. "Before you do anything you might want to put on your jacket."

Blood rushed up Alice's face, instantly she pulled her collar up and pushed past Evan towards her room. Why hadn't she thought about putting her jacket on earlier.

When Alice finally arrived on the Daedalus, Rodney had already started working. "You're late again." Alice threw a energy bar at his head, she'd known he was going to say something along those lines. "Hey! Oh, thanks." He said ripping into the candy bar.

Alice rolled her eyes, if only all men were so easy to manipulate. Rolling up her sleeves she set her mind to work.

—-

"Shit… Not again." Alice ran up the stairs into the conference room, she was running late for Elizabeth's first meeting back in Atlantis. John had also just returned from the first stint on the human/wraith colony, but he'd managed to make it to the room on time it looked like. Alice crashed through the door, like a bull. Everyone in the room turned to stare at her. "Sorry." Alice winced.

Elizabeth was sitting at the table and smiling in pleasure, despite the fact Alice was the last to join. She waited for Alice to pull out her chair and sit down before she started. "We've all logged more than a few miles these past few weeks. I'd just like to say that seeing you now, sitting across from me, looking at your faces ..." she paused, looking around but Alice didn't miss her lingering on John's face. "... it makes me feel very ..." her voice hitched and she blinked away tears.

"You don't have to say it." John tried to comfort her.

"We feel the same way you do." Teyla smiled warmly.

Rodney looked at her. "Oh, she feels hungry too, hmm?" Alice knew this time he wasn't oblivious, he was trying to bring up the atmosphere of the room.

Elizabeth grinned knowingly and straightened up. "Teyla, I understand navigating the hive ship wasn't a particularly pleasant experience."

Teyla twitched slightly. Alice cringed, she hadn't been there but Teyla had told her how it felt. "The neural interface was quite exhausting." She managed to say, not going into the details she'd told Alice before.

"And that was just flying in a straight line. I mean, she'll never be able to pull off anything complex, like combat manoeuvrability, weapons control ..." Rodney started listing off.

John held up his hand. "How many manoeuvres can you pull off with your manual interface?"

Rodney fidgeted in his seat. "Well, does, um, standing still count as a manoeuvre?"

"No." John said deadpan.

Elizabeth smiled. They all turned as the doors to the conference room opened. Alice did a quick double take to see if they were missing anyone, but the normal senior team were all there. Then, Richard Woolsey strolled in carrying his trademark silver briefcase. Alice tried not to pull her lips back into a snarl, she'd had more than her fair share of reports and run-ins with the IOA representative back at the SGC.

"Sorry I'm late. My interviews are running a little longer than expected." He put the case down on the table next to Elizabeth and opened it.

"And ... you are?" John raised his eyebrow at him.

"Richard Woolsey." Alice answered her voice full of contempt as she examined his Atlantis issue uniform.

Elizabeth cleared her throat awkwardly. "He is chief liaison to the international committee that oversees the Atlantis expedition. He will be conducting individual interviews with each of you."

"As well as observing all senior staff meetings." He added, pulling out some files and then deliberately dragged a chair over to sit next to Elizabeth.

"Right!" She shifted her chair along awkwardly so that Woolsey can sit down next to her. Though she was trying to hide it Alice could tell she was just as bothered by this man.

"So - what did I miss?" He said almost cheerily.

A moment of silence passed. "Rodney was about to run down all the progress he's made adapting the hive controls." John finally said, smiling mischievously as Rodney's face dropped.

"Excellent. Please continue." Woolsey smiled.

"Hmm!" Rodney huffed. "Thanks!"

—

Alice stood outside the conference room, after their update Woolsey had asked John and her to wait around. As they were ' _The next targets on his list'_ as he'd put it.

John had gone first, leaving her outside to agonise about what they were going to ask her. Her stomach felt like it was doing flips, this wasn't her first time doing interviews with the IOA, but this one made her particularly nervous. Woolsey had the authority to remove any personnel he saw fit, and she was sure the IOA knew all about her and John. And she hadn't exactly had the best relationship with them when she was stationed back on Earth as part of SG-4 or SG-11.

The IOA were annoying like that, they always seemed to know everything going on. At the SGC, Evan and her had assumed they had remote access to the security cameras, but on Atlantis, the only way was if someone was feeding them information.

She paced up and down in front of the conference room. Finally the doors opened, Alice immediately stood at attention. She knew she didn't have to, but when she was nervous she found it comforting to revert to her basic military training. John stepped out of the room, looking like he wanted to put Woolsey's head through a wall. That wasn't a good sign. They locked eyes as he walked out, his expression softened slightly, but he couldn't say anything as Woolsey was right on his heels.

"Doctor Riley, good. Come in please."

Alice took a bracing breath in and strode past him into the room. She took the seat John had just vacated, the doors sliding shut behind her. Woolsey sat down across from her and started opening files and pulling papers out. Alice knew this was an attempt to intimidate her. She sat up straight and looked directly as Woolsey, trying to avoid fidgeting with her hands.

He cleared his throat and looked up, he seemed slightly unsettled to find Alice staring at him. "From these reports, it says you were against the testing of the retrovirus from the beginning."

It wasn't a question, but she knew Woolsey was expecting a reply. "Yes, but as I explained in my report. I am in complete agreement with Doctor Weir and Doctor Beckett and supported the decision."

"Even after Michael killed Sergeant Cole?" He gave her an inquisitive look, he was trying to find her sore spot. If she could just make it through without showing it, she'd be fine.

She swallowed the lump in her throat as she remembered Cole's body lying on the ground. "Yes. Cole's death was a tragedy. But, he's not the first friend I've lost. We're at war, and that means we have to do everything we can to prevent more deaths in the long term."

Woolsey nodded and scribbled something down in his notebook. "And your decision to support Doctor Weir in the creation of this colony, was this because you believe this is the right decision, or because Colonel Sheppard asked you to agree?"

"Excuse me?"

"You and Colonel Sheppard are romantically involved-"

"Yes, but what's that-" Alice opened her mouth trying to argue, but Woolsey wouldn't let her get a word in.

"We know you two began a physical relationship whilst you were under his command, which is not only unprofessional but also highly unethical-"

Alice's face hardened. "My relationship with Colonel Sheppard is none of your concern."

He paused as he looked down in his file. "And your previous relationship with Major Lorne. He was also your commanding officer, correct?"

"No, i mean yes, but-" She tried to explain.

Again, Woolsey didn't give her a chance to finish. "So you can see why the IOA is concerned about your ability to make responsible decisions. If it was up to this committee you would be removed from your position-"

Alice slapped her hand down on the table. "Good thing it isn't your decision! Who I choose to date is none of your goddamn business" She was grinding her teeth in anger, she saw a glint of satisfaction in Woolsey's eyes. He'd gotten the rise he'd wanted out of her.

"It is when it threatens the success of the mission."

She took in a few breaths to calm herself, dragging her hands off the table onto her lap. So he couldn't see they were now clenched into fist. "If you're asking me whether I support Doctor Weir's decision, then my answer is yes. These people need us, we woke the Wraith up so it's our responsibility to win this war, by whatever means necessary. It's got nothing to do with Sheppard." She stood up, clenching her arms behind her back. "Is there anything else sir."

Woolsey looked her up and down, before shaking his head. "You're dismissed Doctor."

She pushed her chair back, more forcefully than necessary and stormed out of the room straight to the control room.

She was fuming, but the feeling evaporated quickly as she saw the scene unfolding in front of her. Rodney was sat at a laptop, and Elizabeth and John were rushing over to him from her office.

"What've we got, Rodney?" Elizabeth asked.

"Long range sensors just picked up a hive ship." He grimaced. Alice felt her stomach drop.

John bent over Rodney's shoulder so he could look at the screen. "It's coming this way?"

Rodney tapped a few keys. "No. Wait a minute - this doesn't make any sense." He stood up and walked over to the long range sensor screen.

He stayed silent as he looked at the screen. Alice twitched impatiently "What is it?"

"On its current course, it's headed straight for the planet where we left Beckett and the prisoners."

"Conference room, now!" Elizabeth said urgently.

Rodney scrambled back to call in the rest of the team. John grabbed Alice's arm and examined her face as she turned to face him. "How was it?" She knew he was talking about her interview with Woolsey, she quickly explained what happened.

"That bastard."

"What about you?" She asked looking over his shoulder to see Teyla and Ronon approaching the staircase. They only had a few more seconds.

"He wanted me to say I didn't agree with Elizabeth. He didn't bring you up, if he had..." John's jaw clenched and his fist tightened.

Alice smiled, she liked seeing John's protective side. "Come on, we don't want to be late."

Once again, they were back in the conference room. Alice was still seething from her chat with him earlier, but she was able to keep her emotions in check and keep her expression neutral. She needed to be careful what she said in this meeting.

"There is no reason for the Wraith to be interested in that planet. It doesn't have a Stargate, and there's no indication that it ever supported a human population. It is completely off the grid." Rodney explained.

"I think we have to consider the possibility that we have a leak." Of course Woolsey would be the first to mention a spy.

"You mean a spy." Ronon stated bluntly.

"Not necessarily in the city itself. Without ruling anything out, I would begin by focussing on our contacts within the various indigenous populations, including ..."

Teyla looked furious. "If you believe any Athosians ..."

Elizabeth held her hand up trying to diffuse the situation. "Let's not jump to any conclusions here."

"Isn't it true that there are humans in this galaxy who serve the Wraith, even worship them? How hard would it be for them to infiltrate one of our allied groups?"

"Mr Woolsey, do you think we post this kind of information on the city bulletin board?"

John swivelled on his chair. "If the Wraith had that level of inside information, they'd be on their way to Atlantis, not some nameless planet with a couple of hundred people on it."

"For the time being, we need to focus on getting those people out of there, because if the Wraith find them and figure out what they are ..." Elizabeth face was grim.

"... we've got a problem. Again." John finished her thoughts.

"How much time do we have?" Ronon asked.

"Two days. Well, we could ... oh, _you_ could beat them there in the _Daedalus."_ Rodney replied.

Alice shook her head. "The hyperdrive is still offline. We've been working hard on it but we'd need at least another twenty-four hours."

John sat up suddenly. "If we leave right now in the hive ship ...?"

Rodney gave him an unsure look. "Oh, it'd be cutting it close."

"What are our chances of surviving a ship-to-ship encounter?" Elizabeth asked.

"If I can get the manual interface working, I'd say ... less than slim."

John and Elizabeth exchanged a long look, then Elizabeth nodded she'd made up her mind. "Do what you can on the way. Alice, get the Daedalus operational as soon as possible."

Alice nodded to her, and the team stood up and left the room.

She grabbed John's arm as they walked out. "I'll be right behind you. Try not to get into too much trouble."

John gave her his signature lopsided grin. "But that's what i specialise in."

She watched him jog towards the armoury, the last thing she wanted was to once again watch him head off without her. Especially not when Michael was concerned. But there was no other choice, instead she decided to use this as a motivator to get the Daedalus' hyperdrive active as soon as possible.

—-

Alice and Hermiod worked as fast as they could to get the Daedalus back into shape. They'd taken a few shortcuts but it would have to do for now. She was lying down under one of the crystal trays, they had weapons back but their sensor lock was still on the fritz.

Her radio sat next to her on the open channel. "Atlantis, this is _Daedalus_. We're ready to go here." Colonel Caldwell's voice called through.

Hermiod muttered something in Asguardian behind her. She didn't need to know the language to know he wasn't happy. If it was up to him they would have spent another week repairing the engines.

"You ready down there Doctor?"

Alice picked up the radio, crushing down on the talk button. "All systems green Colonel. We're still working on weapons lock. Should be fixed by the time we arrive."

"Good enough." A few seconds later she felt the Daedalus accelerate into the hyperspace window.

Time seemed to slip between her fingers. She worked frantically trying to repair the weapons systems, but before she knew it her radio clicked.

"Doctor, we're on final approach to the planet. How are we looking?"

Alice closed her laptop and waved at Hermiod. "We're ready all systems online and operational. I'm heading up to you." She moved quickly and anxiously, they hadn't heard from John and her team since they left. This wasn't unexpected but it still made her worry.

She arrived on the bridge just as Caldwell gave the order to drop out of hyperspace. She walked straight past him to the main window. The sight in front of her made her stomach lurch. They were in the middle of a debris field. She heard footsteps approach her, Caldwell appeared on her side.

Kleinman confirmed her worst fear. "It's debris from a hive ship, sir."

"Life signs?" Caldwell's voice was straightforward but Alice thought she could hear a tremble. But her eyes were locked on the space in front of her, trying to think of all the ways they could have survived. They'd always made it out of bad situations like this all the time, only Alice was usually along side them.

"No, sir."

"What about the planet?" She asked keeping her voice calm.

"I'm not getting anything." Kleinman said hesitantly.

"I see." Caldwell turned away from the window. Alice bit down on her tongue, it didn't feel right, she would have known if her team had died. If John had died. She would have felt something.

Just then the radio crackled. " _Daedalus_ , this is Sheppard, come in." Alice broke out into a grin, she knew they'd made it.

"Sheppard, where the hell are you?" Caldwell was smiling as well.

"Oh! Right. Sorry." John said in his typical casual fashion.

"Picking up a Jumper, sir. Five life signs." Kleinmen reported, Alice had to stop herself from jumping in excitement.

"You got here in good time, Colonel. We were looking at a long ride home." Alice smiled back at Caldwell, and headed for the X302 bay as he gave them clearance to land.

She waiting outside the bay doors as the Jumper entered the bay and the deck re-pressurised. As soon as the green light flickered on, she was through the door and running to the back door of the Jumper. As it opened she flung herself onto her team, enveloping Ronon, Teyla and Rodney in a bear hug. "Thank goodness you guys are okay."

Teyla laughed and put her arm around them as well. "It is good to see you as well my friend."

Rodney was the first to pull back, looking slightly miffed about the forced physical contact. "Yeah, well I'll be in the cafeteria." He grumbled walking past them to get food.

But Alice couldn't find it in her to be annoyed. She pulled her hands back and looked appreciatively at her team. "Food does sound good."

Ronon smiled and clapped her on the shoulder. "We'll see you there." Then both Teyla and him moved out of the Jumper following after Rodney.

John was still standing in the cockpit, looking busily down at the controls. Alice knew it was just an act though. She walked up behind him and slipped her hand into his and dropped her head onto his shoulder. "Y'know I think i'm starting to get used to you dying now. It's starting to lose its impact." She tried to keep a straight face.

John's hand stopped moving over the controls. "Constantly peril not enough for you anymore." He looked down at her with a raised eyebrow.

She couldn't help smiling now. "I'm glad you're safe, but next time i might just shoot you myself. Save me the worry."

"I'll keep that in mind for next time." He chuckled. Alice dropped her head to hide the grim look that wiped the smile of her face. Even though it was a joke, John's words played around in her head. There would always be next time, whether it was him or her.


	27. Chapter 27

**A/N Sooooo, I've been wanting to write a chapter from John's point of view for ages, and this episode finally felt like the right one to do it.**

 **Finally, we get to see Alice through the eyes of John.**

 **Hope you enjoy the chapter!**

JOHN POV

John tried to focus his attention on the HUD and keeping the jumper level. But it was difficult when he felt an irritating itch at the back of his throat and mucus filling his sinuses. Finally he couldn't hold it any longer and let out a chesty cough. Riles was sat next to him in the co-pilot's seat. Her chestnut hair was hanging down over her shoulder. He'd noticed since she'd become a civvy she'd taken to wearing her hair down more often, not that he was complaining. As he looked at her he remembered the feeling of the golden brown strands between his fingers, and splayed out against his bedsheets. He smirked as he saw her green eyes shift from the panel in front of her towards him and her head shake disapprovingly as he coughed again.

"Are you alright, Colonel?" Teyla lent forward in her seat behind Riles.

"It's nothing. Just a cold. No big deal. It's just annoying." He said hoarsely, irritated at how he sounded. He hated being sick.

"Talking about annoying ..." he heard Rodney mutter behind him.

"What?" John twisted his neck and gave him a daring look.

Rodney held his gaze for a moment before dropping it back to his datapad. He couldn't help smirking, intimidating and annoying Rodney has become one of his favourite things to do on missions. Was it fair to him, probably not, but was it hilarious… yes. Definitely yes. "We should be focusing on harvesting space Gates." Rodney complained changing the subject.

"That's what we're doing, Rodney. The M.A.L.P. detected life signs. We have to check it out. That's the protocol." John explained patiently.

"I am just saying that identifying potential space Gates to complete the intergalactic bridge should be our priority, not making contact with the locals of some backwater hamlet." Rodney always complained like a five year old when he didn't his way.

John sniffled, ignoring the small irate glances Riles was giving him. Though he wasn't sure if it had more to do with the fact he'd apparently kept her up half the night coughing until she'd kicked him out around 4am. If he looked at her carefully he could just see the small dark shadows forming under her eyes. He couldn't help but feel a small twinge of guilt, but the computer shook him out of his thoughts as it alerted him to the life signs up ahead. "Backwater hamlet dead ahead."

—-

He put the Jumper down just on the outskirts of the village, cloaked of course, the last thing he needed was for the locals to lose their crap over a flying ship. E'd read enough SG-1 mission reports to know that Star Trek might have been onto something with their General Order 1.

It didn't take them long to walk to the village, he had the lead with Teyla, Riles and Rodney trailing just behind them with Ronon bringing up the rear. He could hear Rodney muttering behind him to Riles about having to walk, and he didn't understand why they had to make contact.

The village wasn't very big, and from the architecture they looked about the equivalent to medieval times. John kept his hands on his P90 as he watched the reactions of the locals to their presence. In his experience villages like this had one of three reactions generally. One, they were used to dealing with traders and off-worlders and would be hospitable. Two, this would be first contact and they would be hesitant. Or three, they were hostile.

From what John could see so far, whilst they seemed interested no one looked particularly shocked or hostile. In fact, some of the villagers even smiled and waved at them. Rodney sighed, already bored probably, low tech societies had that effect on him. "OK, let's just make contact, buy our souvenirs, and ... get _out_ of here!"

However, John has a suspicion his mood was about to perked up as he spotted two women up ahead, both young and very pretty. John couldn't help but smile back at one of the women. "Fair day to you." She said sweetly as he passed her.

"Fair day to you!" He repeated back, his gaze lingering on her. Not that he was particularly interested or anything like that, but he could still appreciate beauty. He glanced back at Riles to see she was staring at the girl too. John slowed his pace to walk beside Rodney. "Nothing here. We should probably go."

A look of resistance flashed in Rodney's eyes. "Yeah, probably wouldn't hurt to make contact with the locals, though, hmm?"

John tried hard not to smile, continuing to play along. "No, no. When you're right, you're right." He heard Riles sigh in resignation.

"No, we're here now, and, uh ..." Rodney tried to insist.

John's facade started breaking as his mouth twitched into a smile, but a man's voice up ahead put him back on alert. "Hello!" A tall man with a large grin on his face started walking towards them. "Hello, new people! Why didn't anybody tell me the new people were here yet?"

All the villagers near them turned to look at man. John got the sense that he was important to these people and most likely the leader. One of the women who had welcomed them walked over to him, draping an arm around his neck and kissed him on the cheek. "Lucius, I've missed you!" She said in the same sweet voice she'd used on them.

Lucius shrugged, still beaming. "Oh, please. Well, I was just out for a walk. Have you met the new people yet?"

John smiled awkwardly. "We just got here." He looked over his shoulder at his team. Riles and Teyla had hospitable smiles plastered on their faces, though he could tell they were both still on edge. Riles kept readjusting her grip on her P90. Ronon kept his stoney glare fixed on Lucius, sizing him up. And Rodney was staring at Lucius and the woman in shock.

"Oh, great. Great. Then I haven't missed anything. I hate missing things." Lucius talked rather rapidly, but so far seemed mostly harmless. He walked towards them, John positioned himself so he was slightly ahead of the team, making it clear he was the leader. "Have you met my wife, Willa? Isn't she gorgeous?" He pointed his thumb over his shoulder, turning to a group of women standing nearby. "My other wives are just making lunch."

"Fair day, Lucius!" One of the women called out enthusiastically.

Lucius waved at her. "Hello, sweetheart. " John inhaled uncomfortably as Lucius started blowing kisses to his wives. "I love ya. I love ya." From the corner of his eye he saw Riles scrunch up her nose in disgust. "Fair day, everybody." Lucius waved to all the villagers who had gathered around, it was like being part of some creepy fairytale village.

He cleared his throat. "Uh, I'm John Sheppard." He turned his body so Lucius could see the rest of the team. "Rodney McKay, Ronon Dex, Teyla Emmagan and Alice Riley."

Lucius smiled eagerly at each of the team members as John introduced them. His gaze lingering on the two girls. "Teyla. Alice." He rolled their names around in his mouth, John instantly felt his guard go back up. Lucius gently pushed Willa aside so that he can step towards Teyla and Riles. He approached Teyla first his eyes raking up and down her body. "And you are from ...?"

Teyla kept a straight face, but John knew she would be hating this. "Athos."

Lucius flashed her what he must've thought was a dazzling smile. "Athos. Yeah, Athos. I've never been there. It sounds nice. Is it nice?"

Unimpressed by his smile, she continued to keep a guarded expression. "Until it was culled by the Wraith."

John thought that might throw him off his game, but Lucius didn't miss a beat. "Oh, I hate them." He grabbed Teyla's hand as if to reassure her, then his eyes flicked to Riles. John felt his spine stiffen as he approached her, a strong urge to shoot him surged in him as he watched Lucius leer at Riles. But he knew Riles was more than capable of handling herself, especially when it came to men. "And Alice? Was it. Are you from Athos too?"

He moved to grab her hand, but Riles kept her grip tight on her P90, so he couldn't touch her. "No." She said bluntly.

Lucius kept smiling. "No, of course not." He said mostly to himself. "It would be criminal of me not to ask the most beautiful women I've seen to join me for lunch? Maybe have some wine?"

"We don't even know your name." Rodney snapped before Riles could respond. Though he was sure her reply would have been very colourful. John also noticed the slightly miffed and glares coming from the wives, directed at his two female teammates.

Lucius looked round at him for a moment, then started to laugh. All the villagers joined in with his laughter. Rodney looked down awkwardly. John just shrugged. "We're serious."

Willa stepped forward. "You mean you truly have not heard of Lucius?" She gazed adoringly at Lucius. "Well, everyone knows - he's the wisest and kindest man among the stars."

"Aw, people just say that. I mean, you can't prove it 'til you've met everybody, am I right?" Lucius didn't seem at all embarrassed or modest.

"Well, then, Lucius, we're glad we met you." John rolled on the balls of his feet. A small scowl had formed on Riles face, she looked ready to deck this guy.

"And if you aren't yet, you will be. Come on, let's have some lunch, huh? Everybody has to eat, right? C'mon, right this way, please." A few of Lucius' wives walked over and looped their arms into John's and Rodney's arms, leading them toward a table before they could protest. John craned his head back to see Lucius offering an arm to both Teyla and Riles. Riles rolled her eyes and deliberately stepped around him, Teyla was more polite. Ronon, however, placed himself inbetween the two and led Teyla away from the man. John turned back to watched where they were going with a amused smirk on his face.

John felt out of his element, politics and pleasantries were more suited to one of the research or science teams, not his front line team. But here they were sat at a dining table with what looked like the whole village. "I love architecture. It's all a mystery to me, really, but ..." Lucius hadn't stopped talking since they sat down, he smiled wearily as he gestured around at the buildings surrounding the square. "... it hasn't stopped me from trying." John wasn't sure how much more of this he would be able to take, if he was being honest he'd barely paid attention to anything Lucius had been saying.

"I see." Teyla replied, still keeping her polite diplomatic facade, but John could tell her patience was starting to wear thin as well.

Lucius stared at Riles and Teyla, as if he couldn't decide between the two. John could almost see him drooling, it was revolting. Lucius leaned in towards John, he had to resist the urge to pull back. "Is she taken yet?" He was staring directly at Riles.

"Yes." John kept his voice short and blunt.

Lucius glanced between Riles and John, a smile twisting up the corners of his lips. "You're a very lucky man sir. Mm-mm." He looked back at Riles, licking his lips. John had to grit his teeth. "What about Teyla?"

Lucius' wasn't exactly subtle and John watched Teyla's eyes flash with an indignant fire. "No. Nor does he, nor anyone else, speak for me." Teyla snapped before could even open his mouth. Riles just narrowed her eyes and took a sip of her drink, John was thankful she hadn't been close enough to hear Lucius' comment about her.

"Oh, yeah. Yeah, you are definitely wife material." Rodney put his hand over his face in disbelief, as Lucius openly leered at Teyla. "I love a woman with spirit ... and a _great_ body."

Teyla glared at him. Riles opened her mouth, but Rodney interrupted cutting the tension. "Excuse me, Lucius, please pardon my ignorance, possibly even my manners, but what is it exactly about you ...?"

"I know what you're going to say, so you don't even have to ask." Lucius finally took his eyes of Teyla and smiled at Rodney. "I have gifts."

The team exchange a glance, they were all having the same thought. Riles almost spat out her drink and Ronon grinned amused. John knew he'd probably regret it, but he had to know. "What are those, uh ... gifts?"

"Exploration, alchemy, medicine. I have - I have to say - some of the best ointments around." Lucius winked at Teyla, John sneezed then broke out into another coughing fit. "See, I could take care of that just ..." Lucius snapped his fingers "... just like that."

John couldn't think of anything worse than letting this man try heal him. "It's just a cold." He smiled copying Teyla's false politeness.

"Nevertheless, I have a potion that could get rid of that in six or seven days."

Rodney made a sarcastic impressed noise. "That's impressive!" John said in the same tone, trying not to roll his eyes. There was definitely nothing here for them here.

"You get used to it. We'll do a trade." Lucius grinned at the team. "So, where are you all from?"

"Around. We move a lot." Riles replied slyly.

"In that wonderful machine of yours. Yeah, I saw it. I was on a walk, I look up, and I heard ... somebody said that you flew through the Ancestral Ring?" He was prying for information.

John was about to deny it, make something up, that was before Ronon decided to jump in. "Yeah, that was us."

"How does it fly?" Like when he looked at the girls, his eyes were filled with desire.

Riles glanced at John out of the corner of her eye. She'd noticed it too. "It's complicated. Not everyone..."

Lucius wasn't listening. "I mean, where do you get a machine like that? I mean, it's a wonderful way to travel. Can I get one? Are they hard to fly?"

John was hitting his limits with this man. "Yes. They are hard to fly, and no, you can't have one." He snapped at Lucius.

Lucius' smile faded for the first time. "But I want one. Please."

"Sorry." John got the impression he didn't get turned down often.

Willa looked at her husband's face. "Perhaps a trade for some of his wonderful medicines?"

"Or perhaps not." Riles commented.

Lucius didn't seem pleased. "What, you come all this way, you don't even want to do a trade? Look, it doesn't have to be the ship. Forget the ship. I don't even want the ship, OK? You've got to have some other stuff that you want to trade, right? OK, like, like," he turned to John "... how do you get your hair to go like that?" John heard Riles stifle a laugh putting her hand up to cover her smile, trying to turn it into a cough.

John gazed at him silently for a moment. "Lunch was great, but I just realised we're running late."

Rodney looked at his, he was always terrible at picking up subtle hints. "For what?"

John narrowed his eyes, giving him a pointed look to shut up. "For that important thing." He placed his hands on the table pushing himself up. The rest of the team were quick to follow.

Her polite facade back in place, Teyla smiled at Lucius. "Yes, as much as we would love to stay, we really must go."

Lucius stood up in a panic. "No, no, no, no, no. I don't want you to go. You just got here. Come on, come on. We haven't even had the second course. Please! I want you to see some of my medicines." The team started to walk away, heading for the jumper. "Go get the ointments, the good ones. Go. Run! Go!" Lucius hurried off one of his wives.

Stepping in line with Riles, John looked back over his shoulder. "Another time, Lucius. We've got to go."

"No. No, I don't want you to leave." The air turned suddenly and the villagers started to close in around the team, preventing them from walking away. Riles tensed beside him, John moved his hand down onto his gun. "OK, OK, OK. Alright. Let them go. We're all friends here, right?"

The villagers stepped back again. John looked around warily, and gestured for them to move on. "Tell you what - soon as we get back, we'll tell our medical people to come see what you have to offer and _then_ we'll talk about trade."

"Later today, maybe?" Lucius said hopefully.

"Maybe."

"I'll have everything ready."

"Thank you"

"You won't be disappointed!" In the back of his head John knew that wasn't going to be true, there was nothing of value here for them.

* * *

John walked down the stairs of the control room, he'd just finished bringing Elizabeth up to speed on their encounter with Lucius. Although both him and Rodney advised against it, she felt it was worth sending the Doc out to check those herbs. But that wasn't his problem now. He headed straight to the mess hall, knowing his team, that's where he'd be most likely to find them. However, as he stepped through the door he came up empty as he scanned the tables for the familiar shapes. As John turned to head out he almost ran straight into Major Lorne.

"Woah, sorry sir." He stepped back quickly.

"Sorry Major." John grunted. He liked Lorne, he was a good soldier and a great second in command. "Have you seen Riles?" If anyone would know where she was it would be her best friend.

"Last I saw she was heading back to her room, said something about having a nap." Lorne replied dutifully. John wasn't sure exactly what the Major thought of him, he knew he had his respect, but sometimes he thought there was a tinge of something else. John knew about Lorne and Riles' previous relationship, and it didn't bother him at all as the two of them seemed to act more like siblings than ex-lovers. Maybe what he was picking up was an underlying protectiveness, John wondered if he wasn't Lorne's second in command if he would have received the stereotypical 'you hurt her and you answer to me' routine.

"Thanks Major." John smiled and move aside to let him pass. He still couldn't help but feel guilty for keeping Riles up half the night. If she really had gone to nap then he owed her a few hours of peace at the very least. Ronon would be in the gym, though John didn't exactly feel up to sparring at the moment. Teyla would be catching the first ride over to the mainland and Rodney would be up scouting for space gates. None of the choices sounded particularly appealing, but John had promised after this mission he'd help Rodney with the scouting. So, turning on his heels he headed back to the control room, covering his mouth as he coughed painfully.

* * *

As a general rule, John felt like he could only spend a few hours solidly with Rodney before he felt the familiar urge to smash his head in. It wasn't like he didn't like Rodney, in fact he was amongst John's closest friends, but he had a tendency to rub everyone the wrong way when he was especially focused on a project. As Riles says, he becomes insufferable. After searching for potential gates for a few hours and listening to Rodney complain about his quota, John had to call it a day. He was now stood in front of Riles door, hoping that she wasn't still asleep. "Command override, Sheppard, Romeo India Niner Lemur Gulf." Her door slid open, it had been a long time since either of them had knocked on each others doors. It had started as a bit of a joke, but turned out to be much easier when they were sneaking about to just run straight in rather than risk waiting for the other to answer the door. John strode into her room. More or less Riles was pretty tidy, everything had a place in her room, the only exception seemed to be when he came over and all their clothes usually ended up strewn across the floor.

Riles was sat up in her bed, her hair thrown up into a messy bun and a datapad on her lap. She looked up as he walked in, a smile broke out on her face. "Hey!" Before he could reply, another coughing wave struck him. Riles' smile turned into a grimace. "You really should get that checked out."

"I'm fine." He grumbled. "It'll be gone by the morning." He moved to sit down.

Riles stuck her leg out to block his seat. "Sorry, but you're on your own tonight flyboy." She smirked. "I love you, but I actually need to sleep tonight."

John pushed her leg aside and sat on the edge of her bed. "Alright, I get it. I won't stay long." She moved her feet under her so he could fall back onto the bed. He closed his eyes, his head was starting to throb with the sinus pressure. A small cool hand was placed on his forehead, he cracked his eyes open to see Riles leaning over him. Loose strands of her hair were dangling around her face, creating almost a halo like effect. He still didn't understand sometimes what a girl like her saw in someone like him. Normally the types of girls that went for, as Riles often referred to him, flyboys were mostly after the uniform. Though pretty soon they realise it's not all it's cracked up to be, especially when the reality is mostly empty nights and constant worry. And they say the military isn't glamorous.

Nancy wasn't like that though. His ex-wife had been smart, ambitious and fiercely independent. But even she couldn't handle the fact John could never tell her anything about his missions, or even where he'd been or why he couldn't call her. Riles was different, she'd never have to wonder or try to understand what he was going through - cause she was right next to him going through it together. As much of a relief it was to be able to openly talk about what he did, he couldn't help but feel a new anxiety every time they stepped through the gate. Everyday they put everything on the line, any mission could be their last and sometimes sacrifices had to be made, tough decisions no one ever prepares you for. Though John had never ordered anyone to their deaths, he'd made the decision to leave people behind and to let them make a sacrifice for the betterment of the mission. As much as he knew it shouldn't be any different, he hoped that he would never be put in the position that his order would be life or death for her.

"What are you thinking about?" Her voice was low, almost a whisper. Her hands pressed gently across his sinuses, trying to relieve the pressure.

He blinked clearing his vision, realising he'd been staring up into her face blankly. She was smiling down at him, her green eyes illuminated by the glow of the datapad on the bed. "Nothing, just tired." His eyes drank in every small feature of her face, from the little freckles on her nose to the small crinkles that appeared when she smiled.

He knew that she didn't believe him, but she didn't push it. "You're still burning up. Y'know I know a guy who could clear that up for you in a week." Her smile turned into a grin as she winked.

John chuckled, but it soon turned into a coughing fit. Riles smile turned back into a tight line. But before she could say anything a small beep in his radio alerted him to an incoming message. "Colonel Sheppard report to the observation room immediately."

"Acknowledged. I'm on my way." John groaned as he sat up, he'd hoped to spend a bit more time with her tonight. Before he stood up he kissed the top of Riles head as she moved back to her sitting position. "I'll see you in the morning."

"Let me know if you need me." She said seriously. He just nodded, most likely it wasn't anything serious, a security issue or someone getting intimate in what they thought are secluded areas - it wouldn't be the first time. Though it did mean John knew where not to go, something that had come in very useful when him and Riles had started getting together. Though it did help when one of the involved parties had all the command override codes.

—

John could tell Elizabeth was on the brink, she was seething, but she always had a soft spot for Beckett. He couldn't blame her, bringing back an unauthorised person could mean big problems. At least Carson had been smart enough not to let him see the gate address. But Lucius was still here, and they had to decide what to do now.

John followed Elizabeth and Rodney down the stairs leading away from the observation room. If it had been anyone else, he was sure they would have received a bigger lashing.

"Do you think he poses a threat?" Elizabeth stopped and looked back at John, awaiting his assessment.

John sniffled. "Definitely a nuisance."

"If what Beckett says is correct, these medicines could be of value to us." Rodney added.

"We'll just keep an eye on him. McKay, Riles and I are heading out to scout more Gates. Tell Teyla and Ronon not to let him out of their sight." John smirked, he was sure they would love the idea of babysitting.

"I thought Aly was working..." Rodney stopped speaking as John glared at him. He was finally starting to pick up nonverbal signs, it had only taken three years. Elizabeth nodded, she was obviously still bothered about the security breach, but John and Rodney's counsel had quelled most of her fears. After they were dismissed, John headed for Riles quarters, but no one was there. He paused for a moment outside her door, then decided to head for her lab.

He could see her even before he got to the lab. She definitely stood out against the other scientists on the expedition. She was petite, lithe and toned from her military background, in comparison to the others who looked like they'd never been outside in the sun. She was standing in front of a white board chewing the end of a marker pen, her hip cocked to one side. She seemed too lost in her thoughts to hear him approach. He stepped closely behind her. "Looks like you've got the coefficient wrong there." He grinned as she jumped flicking the pen across the room.

"Geez John. Don't do that to me." She slapped a hand into his chest. "And nothing is wrong with my equation, thanks." She scrunched up her face in annoyance, putting her hands on her hips.

"Really? Then why isn't it finished." He crossed his hands over his chest, keeping a straight face.

"Well..." She stuttered. "What do you want?" She walked past him towards where her pen had flown.

"Grab your gear, you're coming gate scouting with McKay and I." He took another glance over the equation, then picked up a pen from the holder and changed one of the fours to an eight.

"What! No way. The gate bridge isn't my project." She bent down to search for her pen.

"Come on, I can't spend my whole evening alone with McKay." He put the pen back and turned to look at Riles. He was greeted with the pleasant sight of her backside as she bent over picking up the pen. He tilted his head staring at her ass. "I'll make it up to you."

She straightened up, her eyes narrowed curiously. "Really?" She put the pen onto the closest table and stepped closer to him. "And how exactly would you do that?" John gulped, trying to keep his best game face on. This wasn't easy as Riles slowly stepped towards him giving him her best sexy glower. The one that made him instantly aroused.

"I'll get you out of the next trading mission." He offered, his voice confident.

She bit down on her bottom lip, internally he groaned, he loved it when she did that. "Nope, not good enough. We are talking about an entire evening with Rodney here." She lifted her hands up and started playing with the zip of his jacket. "How about... you get me out of the next two trading missions and the next month of tech check-in missions." She raised an eyebrow at him.

He felt heat rising in his body. "Fine, deal."

She smiled, and her eyes shined with triumph. He was so whipped, she had him twisted so tightly around her finger he would have given her anything. He didn't care though. She was his. And now he wasn't stuck alone with Doctor insufferable for the next few hours. Now, it wasn't like he didn't consider Rodney a good friend. But on missions like this Rodney had a tendency to get whiny and macabre. Always complaining about how he didn't get enough credit and blah blah. He'd heard it enough, he couldn't stand another evening of it. At least with Riles there, he would be guaranteed a few laughs and maybe some light flirting.

—-

It was well into the night now by the time they made it back to Atlantis, it had taken them a lot longer than John had anticipated to scout out the new locations. If only it was easy as picking a gate and taking it, but there always seemed to be something, a settlement or the Wraith. John led the way down the stairs, Rodney and Riles only a few steps behind him. John rubbed his temples, trying to avoid snapping at Rodney.

"One tiny settlement on the entire planet? Look, all we'd have to do is relocate them." He said for what felt like the millionth time.

And once again John repeated. "We're not evacuating an entire planet so we can take their Gate."

"Where is everyone..." Riles voice made John stop. He realised she was right, the normally busy control room was desolate.

Except for Chuck who was standing nonchalantly against the balcony with a mug in his hand. "Hey! Welcome back." He greeted them cheerily.

"Where's Zelenka?" Rodney stepped down, looking just as confused as John felt.

"Well, he's not here." Chuck said with a shrug.

"Well, we can see that." Riles had her hand ghosting over where her gun was, as if she expected enemies to jump out from behind the panels.

"No." John looked around the room nervously. "No-one's here. Where is everyone?"

Chuck just gave them a casual smile. "At story time of course." He nudged his head towards the stairs. "Mess hall."

Chuck went back to lounging against the railing and sipping on his drink. "On me." John narrowed his eyes, keeping his gaze on Chuck until he walked out of sight. Riles followed closely, her face contorted with worry. They approached the mess hall, and even before they opened the door they could hear a wash of laughter. This qualmed some of John's nerves, but everything felt off, he had no idea what to expect when they walked through the doors.

Riles walked through first, John followed and almost felt his mouth drop to the floor. In front of them were group of their Atlantis crew gathered eagerly Lucius who was sitting on one of the tables and telling a story. "I'm standing outside. I don't know what to do. I ran. I ran! I ran - and I'm the guy who's holding the weapon, OK?!" Everyone laughed again, hesitantly John started approaching them. Riles glanced at him, her eyes wide as they noticed sitting alongside Lucius uncharacteristically beaming up at him was Elizabeth. "So here's what I do. OK, here's what I do. OK, I'm standing there, and I'm running, and I see the beast, just coming towards me, so I just step to my left, I turn around, and just as he's coming to me, I take my sword, I draw it …" He gestured drawing the sword and the crew all flinched back, completely engrossed in the story." ... and I lop off its head!" Everyone gasped, it was like they were from some old cringey movie. Something was definitely wrong, there was no way Elizabeth, Ronon and Teyla would have suddenly become such...wimps. "Yeah, and I bend over, I pick it up, and I walk in triumph back to the village."

Elizabeth smiled and leaned in towards Lucius. "Amazing." Riles made a gagging noise next to him.

"You didn't!" Ronon slapped his knee, John had never once seen Ronon this amused or enthralled in anything other than killing Wraith.

"Oh, oh, yes, oh my giant friend, I did, and let me tell you this: I had no trouble finding female companionship that night, if you know what I mean!" The crew all laughed and a few of the female personnel even seemed to blush. John thought he might be sick.

"What the hell..." Riles muttered under her breath.

"Repeatedly!" The crew laughed hysterically. Lucius put his arm around Elizabeth, who had her hand on his knee. Teyla reached out and held his other hand. John didn't even know what to say, he looked back at Riles and Rodney, they both had the same look of disbelief and disgust on their faces.

—-

"What the hell is going on?" John sat on the edge of Elizabeth's desk. Ronon, Teyla, Elizabeth and Carson stood in front of him. Riles and Rodney stood either side of him.

"What do you mean?" Elizabeth looked around at the other confused.

John screwed up his face. "What do I mean? We leave for a few hours, and Lucius turns you all into Stepford wives!"

"What did he do to you?" Riles crossed her arms over her chest.

Elizabeth was still wearing the same smile she'd had listening to Lucius. It was off putting, it wasn't her real smile. "Absolutely nothing. Carson was right about him."

Teyla nodded eagerly. "I agree. He has much to offer us."

"Herbs and gourds?!" Rodney scoffed.

"Please, the medicines alone are worth whatever he asks." Carson said like it was obvious.

They were starting to make John nervous. Nothing they'd come across in the three years of the expedition had ever been worth anything. "You're really telling me the ointment is worth something?"

"I haven't actually tested it." Carson chuckled like it was a great joke.

"Oh, you're just taking his word for it." Rodney said sarcastically.

Ronon's smile was gone, he stepped towards Rodney threateningly. "You got a problem with that?"

"Me?" He pointed to himself nervously. "Uh, no." He then pointed to John, he had to stop himself from rolling his eyes. Rodney really needed to grow a set. "He might."

John decided to ignore Rodney. "Teyla, this is the man who asked you to be his seventh wife."

Elizabeth looks round at her with shock written all over her face. "I know." Teyla looked apologetically at Elizabeth. "I hope I didn't upset him." Okay, they were definitely brainwashed or something John thought. There was no way the Teyla he knew would want to be a man's wife - let alone his seventh wife.

"Upset him?! That disgusting leech-" Riles stepped forward, but John held his hand out to stop her.

"You just haven't taken the time to get to know Lucius." Carson's face was like a small child who wanted you to allow him to keep the pet he'd just brought home.

"Carson is right. Again." She patted his arm. "Look, I think he could be a great asset to us. He has travelled extensively throughout this galaxy, and gathered a tremendous amount of intelligence."

John raised an eyebrow, he greatly doubted Lucius had any intelligence that would be worth it. "Has he shared any of this intelligence?"

"Not yet, but ..." She picked up a gourd with the candle in it, from her small side table. "... he did give me this." Teyla's mouth dropped open in awe as Elizabeth held out the gourd for Carson, Teyla and Ronon to look at more closely.

John glanced over at Riles, her expression had changed from one of disbelief to a pensive concern. He gestured with his head towards the back door. Rodney and Riles followed him, the others were too interested in the Gourd to even notice them leaving. They waited until they were outside the room. "Okay, something is definitely up. I'm gonna see if i can round up any of the gate teams. You guys try to find out what's happening here."

—-

John paced a line back and forth in Rodney's lab. "This is creeping me out." John had managed to find Lorne, Lloyd and a few other marines, but they were all in the same state of mind. "Lorne and the others are out, they couldn't stop talking about how brave and courageous Lucius was."

Rodney was working on his laptop, with Riles hovering over his shoulder. "Yeah, reminds me of an old Batman episode, actually. Catwoman used a drug to put a spell on Batman, making him fall in love with her. Ended up doing all sorts of evil things for her." He straightened up from the computer. "Kind of a turn-on, actually. Julie Newmar in a cat outfit ..."

John smirked. "Eartha Kitt was Catwoman."

Rodney smiled smugly. "Not 'til Season three."

"Really?"

"Yeah. You didn't know that?"

"Seriously... our friends are all brainwashed and you're drooling over some actress?!" Riles slapped Rodney on the back of the head, John was glad he was out of her reach, but the glare she was giving him was bad enough.

"Ow. So, anyway, I did a little investigating, and ..." John walked around to stand beside Riles, hoping that she wouldn't try to slap him as well, looking down at the video on the screen "... surveillance footage from his quarters." They all silently watched as Lucius took a glass vial from his bag and drank the contents.

"What's this?" He pointed to the vial.

"Ah. We took the liberty of searching his room, hmm?"

Riles held up a small vial "There's some residue from the liquid still in the vial. It'll take some time to break it down. We _could_ have used Carson's help on this, but..." she trailed off.

"... he's off picking daffodils for his new friend." John finished, sighing.

"Right." Rodney muttered, his face dropping.

"Keep me updated. Try to stay out of the way of the crazies." John brushed his hand up Riles arm. She just nodded, her lips pulled tightly together. John headed for the control room, he needed to try snap Elizabeth out of whatever was happening. To his luck, she wasn't alone. Lucius was with Elizabeth and Zalenka and they were discussing the intergalactic gate bridge.

John felt his blood heat up as Lucius cupped Elizabeth's face in his hands, and even worse Elizabeth seemed to melt into it. "Beautiful and brilliant. The two Bs."

He glared at Elizabeth, there was no way in her right mind she'd ever show this kind of affection to some simpering idiot from a backwater planet. "Doctor Weir." He said sharply, he wanted nothing more than to rip Lucius' hands off her face and send him packing through the gate - preferably with a few reminders of John's fist to make him think twice about ever contacting them again.

Elizabeth turned to him, smiling happily. "Oh, hi, John. We were just discussing the Gate harvesting programme." Her voice was airy, her mind seemed to be a million miles away.

"Yeah, I heard."

"And Lucius knows of an excellent planet we should investigate."

"I heard that, too. We got intel that the Wraith recently set up a major outpost there. An alliance of three hives."

"No. Really?" Lucius tried to appear shocked, but John wasn't buying it. There had to be something special about this planet.

"Has your intel been verified?" Elizabeth questioned, her toning hardening.

"We haven't put boots on the ground, no, but our contacts are trustworthy. I'm not gonna send a team down there - not when there's still plenty of Gates to scout."

"John, you are way behind Rodney's quota." She sounded almost desperate.

"Forget Rodney's quota. I am not sending a team into harm's way." John raised his voice, daring Elizabeth to fight him on this. She was definitely out of her mind, normally she would never even consider sending a team if they had this kind of intel.

Lucius waved his hands, breaking them apart. "You know what? Colonel Sheppard is right. Don't get me wrong - with all your advanced weapons, you could easily dispose of a tiny Wraith outpost, if there even is an outpost, but ultimately, is it worth the risk, no matter how small that risk may be?" He turned to Elizabeth and Radek. "I mean, sure, people may label you a coward ..."

John had enough now. "Will you knock it off?!" He'd been called a lot of things in his life, but a coward wasn't one of them.

Elizabeth cleared her throat. "Colonel. I think it's worth investigating."

"No. I won't allow it." He said sternly.

"John, are you questioning my authority?"

"When it comes to the security of this base, you're damned right I am." He walked closer to her. "From now on, no-one goes through that Gate without my authorisation." He gave them a final look, waiting for them to defy him. When no one said anything he turned and walked away. John was seething, they needed to get that man off this base and away from his crew. He just wasn't sure exactly how to do it yet, they all seemed almost obsessed with him. He was never alone, and he wasn't sure what they'd do if John tried to remove him by force. He just couldn't believe what would cloud Elizabeth's judgement enough to endanger the lives of her personnel on the word of some outsider. He couldn't stop himself, as soon as he stormed back into Rodney's lab he blurted out everything that just happened angrily.

"What is she thinking?!" Riles looked incredulous. "We have to stop her."

"is she nuts?" Rodney was carefully extracting liquid from the vial.

"Everybody's nuts, Rodney. Haven't you noticed?" He ran his hand through his hair, tugging at it.

"Right." Was all Rodney could reply with.

He pointed at Rodney. "You need to figure out why without drawing too much attention."

"We're working on it, but there's not enough of the liquid to work with. I need more." He looked at the small droplet on the microscope slide.

John nodded. "I'll go back to Lucius' village. I'm sure he keeps a stash there. I'll just grab some."

"What, you're leaving me here alone?"

"You said you need the liquid. And besides." He looked at Riles. "You're not alone." He didn't like the idea of leaving her here with only herself as protection, but Rodney stood no chance by himself.

"C'mon Rodney, i'm not that forgettable." She tried to lighten the tone of the conversation, but John could hear the tension still in her voice.

"Yeah, but the place is turning into a nuthouse!" Rodney complained.

"Somebody's got to stay. Just keep away from the nuts. And Riles, you've gotta disable the D.H.D. as soon as I'm gone to prevent anybody from dialling out, OK?" He gave them both a firm look, before heading out of the door and breaking out into another convulsive coughing fit.

* * *

John eagerly wait for the green light to travel through the gate, his heart seemed to be counting the seconds. It was taking longer than normal, he hoped Lucius hadn't somehow managed to convince the team to block him out. He should have had Riles put in a backdoor that automatically dropped the shield on his IDC. His heart starting beating even faster, then finally the all clear came through. He took a quick last look around to make sure he wasn't being followed and stepped through the event horizon.

The first thing he heard as he re-materialised in the was Lucius' voice. He also heard Rodney giggling hysterically. Not a good sign. He ran up the stairs, sweeping past the control room and approached Elizabeth's office. Lucius was sitting comfortably in Elizabeth's chair, Rodney was in front of him giggling as Lucius talked.

"And the next day she became my wife - my fifth wife - and now I have six!" John could hear Lucius finishing his story.

Rodney laughed in delight. It wasn't something he'd heard Rodney do much of in recent months. "You are a scoundrel, you know that? It's what you are. Sheppard, come here. You've got to hear this. Lucius was just telling the most hysterical story. Do you know that they have marmots on his planet? Well, they're not marmots, exactly, but it's a rodent very similar to the marmot ...

John didn't see Riles anywhere, he wasn't sure if that was a good sign or not. Whatever happened while John was away, Lucius somehow managed to get to Rodney. "I thought you said you were going to stay away from the nuts." He interrupted.

"Yes, well, I tried to keep to myself, but Lucius here was concerned for me, so he just came down, Ronon held me against the wall, and Lucius and I had a nice, long talk." Rodney smiled like he was talking about a fond memory.

"Oh, you did?" John raised an eyebrow.

"And let me tell you, we have nothing to worry about with this guy. This guy's just a big knucklehead, aren't you, you big knucklehead?!" He pummelled Lucius' arm as they both laugh.

"Where's Riles and Elizabeth?"

Lucius waved his hand nonchalantly at him. "Elizabeth's making me something to eat."

"What?" John spat.

"I don't know. She said it was a surprise. So Rodney and I were waiting here for the team to return. We thought that you were them."

"Yeah Alice, Teyla, Ronon and Beckett. They volunteered to check out M6H-491."

John was seething. "I told you …"

Rodney had a stupid grin all over his face "... to disable the D.H.D. I know. I'm sorry. I didn't. But come on — Aly, Ronon and Teyla. I mean, they can handle themselves."

"Well, what about Beckett?"

"Oh, he ... now, he can walk on his hands. Did you know that? Yeah, he was showing Lucius just before he left. You should have seen it. He was down on his hands …" He bent down, putting his hands on the floor and tried to kick his feet up into a handstand.

"McKay!" John shouted angrily at him, he was past the niceties now.

Rodney stood up immediately and pulled down his jacket. "Well, we don't know for sure that there are even Wraith on the planet." He grinned at Lucius. "We'll find out soon enough, though, won't we?"

"We sure will." Lucius grinned at John happily. John felt his stomach sink, he should have never left them alone here.

* * *

John paced anxiously, they still hadn't heard from Riles' team. No one seemed to be particularly worried though, but John wouldn't be able to forgive himself if anything happened to any of them.

Finally, the gate dialled. John ran around to the control desk. He still couldn't believe she'd gone off-world, whatever was happening here they'd managed to get Riles and McKay and it was his fault. He was so lost in thought, he almost jumped out of his skin when the gate started dialling. He ran around next to Chuck, watching the screen for an IDC, to his relief a small signal was identified as Beckett's IDC.

"Atlantis, this is Beckett! We're coming in hot!"

"Marines!" John called down into the gateroom. Squads of heavily arms men appeared out of thin air aiming their guns at the gate. "Lower the shield." He ordered Chuck.

Three blasts, most likely Wraith stunner blasts, flew through the Gate and impacted against the wall. John didn't wait for the others, he ran down the steps, ducking as more blasts came through. Ahead of him, Carson, Teyla, Riles and Ronon ran through the Gate, laughing happily as Ronon, who was running backwards, fired into the event horizon. All of them were carrying bags in their arms.

"Shut it down." John called. His friends turned to face him, they all had massive grins as they giggled like children. John looked at Lucius, Rodney and Elizabeth who appeared at his side. They were grinning at his team ecstatically.

"You alright?" John gave each one of them a quick glance, his eyes lingering slightly longer on Riles. None of them seemed to be hurt at least.

"Yeah, it was a little rough, but we're good." Ronon said grinning, it was unsettling, as long as John had known him he'd never seen him smiling this much.

Beckett was breathing heavily. "It was all terribly exciting."

"Well, I guess we can assume there are Wraith on that planet." He turned to Lucius and glared accusingly at him.

Riles giggled in a very un-Riles way. "Yeah, no shortage there!"

"Now, don't overreact, John." Elizabeth sounded like she was chastising a small child.

John was ready to explode. "Are you kidding me? You send a team, my team, led by Beckett to a planet full of Wraith. How do you expect me to react?" He roared.

"Well, firstly, they volunteered."

Beckett stepped forward. "And secondly, we got the herb!" John glared as he, Riles and Ronon held up their bags triumphantly. Everyone around him broke out on applause. Suddenly John felt like he had an idea of what it felt like to go insane.

"Carson, I will tell people of the tale of your bravery for many years to come." Lucius smiled overly pleasantly at him, beckoning him closer.

Beckett's eyes lit up and he walked towards him. "You will?!"

"Yes, I will!" Lucius brought Beckett into a hug, pounding on his back enthusiastically.

"Isn't it great!" John hadn't noticed Riles had slipped over next to him.

He looked down at her grinning face. Her eyes were wide, with pupils the size of a planet. "Riles, what were you thinking!" He grabbed her arm, she gasped in shock dropping the bag so it fell on the floor and opened. Green leaves from a plant were bursting out onto the floor. Keeping his grip on Riles' arm he looked at Lucius in disbelief. "You sent them to get an herb?"

Riles placed her other hand on his shoulder. "We wanted to go. I wanted to go."

John wanted to shake her, all of them, snap them back into reality. How could he be the only one that saw how insane everyone was acting. "OK. I've just about had enough." He tightened his grip on Riles' arm moved to grab the herb on the floor.

Instantly Ronon cocked his blaster and aimed it at him. All traces of his smile was gone, John heard Rodney gasp behind him. But John kept his eyes trained on Ronon's gun. "Don't touch it."

Elizabeth walked forward and gestured for Ronon to lower his blaster, then faced John. "What on Earth is wrong with you, John? We were just helping a friend, and there's nothing wrong with you!"

John looked around at his friends, his team, his family. All of them had the same glazed over, drugged expression Riles did. He was alone, and there was nothing he would be able to do from the Brig. If he made a move now, Teyla and Ronon would be ontop of him before he could do anything. And although he was hesitant to hurt them, he wasn't sure they'd show the same lenience. Whatever he was going to do, now wasn't the moment. He released Riles' arm. "You know what? I'm just tired. It's this damned cold." He turned to Lucius and gritted his teeth. "I apologise." He tried to say sincerely, he hoped he was a better actor than he thought.

It seemed to work, Lucius smiled sweetly at him. "Maybe you should get some rest." Riles looked at him concerned, with her strange expression.

John forced himself to smile. "You're probably right. I just need a good night's sleep."

The last thing he wanted to do was leave Riles alone again with Lucius, but he didn't have much choice right now. He half hoped as he left the Gateroom she would follow him, but no luck. At the doorway, he turned back to take a final look at his friends. They were all silently watching him. It reminded John of those old cults he'd heard about, where the leaders seemed to have the undying loyalty of their followers. Those stories never had a happy ending either if he remember correctly.

—

John had spent the last few hours locked in his room, he'd taken one of Riles' data pads she'd left there and activated his command override. This gave him limited access to Atlantis' key systems. This was something Riles' had taught him, it meant he could keep an eye on all critical systems, and use the internal sensors to monitor what was going on.

After a while he'd finally come up with a plan, and it was time to put it into motion. He checked his pockets nervously, everything was ready. Nervously, he peered through the infirmary doorway. To his luck Beckett was standing at the scanner nearby.

"Uh, Doc?" He whispered quietly. "Could I speak with you for a sec?"

Carson had a stern look on his face, he turned to his assistant. "Excuse me."

John tried to look as sheepish as possible, Beckett walked over to him with his hands behind his back. John had flashes back to high school, and being pulled into the principal's office to admit to some prank he'd pulled on another student. "I ... think there might be something wrong with me."

John knew Beckett would have his guard up around hin after what happened, but those words seems to completely relax him. He smiles and put a hand on John's shoulder. "It's alright, son. Admitting it is the first step." He said softly.

John had to stop himself from cringing, a few medical staff walked close to them. John hesitated, not wanting to be overheard. Though he could see in Beckett's expression he thought his hesitation was due to embarrassment. Playing on this, John jerked his head to indicate that they should step outside.

Beckett started talking as the walked. "So you finally came around, did you?" John just shrugged, wanting to get him away from prying eyes as quickly as possible. "You see, once you get a chance to know Lucius, he's really a very wise and kind ..."

John pulled the Wraith stunner he'd been concealing in his jacket and fired at Beckett. He convulsed and started to collapse. John reacted quickly grabbing him so he didn't make a sound. Holding him up, he looked around nervously to see whether anyone in had heard the blast, then quietly he dragged the Doc towards the Jumper bay. Any other time, he doubted he'd be able to get through Atlantis hauling an unconscious body. But somehow he managed to successfully dodge all security teams and personnel and make it all the way into a Jumper.

He didn't waste any time. As soon as he closed the door he prepped for launch and waited till the last moment to open the outer bay doors. Then he was free, he directed the Jumper towards the mainland and cloaked the ship. He twisted his head as Beckett started groaning. "Hey, Carson. Sorry about that." Though he really wasn't that sorry.

Beckett shuffled in his seat, only just realising his hands were tied together. John didn't want to take any risks. "What? Why are ...?" Beckett asked confused.

"I'm taking you to the mainland. It's for your own good. Trust me." John turned back to face the HUD, keeping an eye out for any pursing Jumpers.

—

It had been a couple of hours, no doubt Elizabeth would have sent a search party after them, but he wasn't going to let himself be caught until Carson had this figured out. It was like watching someone go through heroine withdrawal, it wasn't pleasant to watch but it wasn't the first time John had seen it. You'd be surprised what soldiers could get their hands on in the middle of the desert to numb their senses.

Though due to the short exposure, Carson seemed to be coming around. Their plan was almost complete, but for the rest of the plan to be successful it was time to go back to the city. John started a small fire and uncloaked the Jumper, and they waited.

Beckett, his hands still tied in front of him, knelt on the ground reading Riles' computer tablet. "Wait just a minute."

John sat up. "What is it?" The next thing he heard was the familiar sound of Ronon's blaster firing up, and then before he could react he felt it pressing against the back of his head.

"Don't move." Ronon said ominously.

Next, Teyla appeared out of the trees, aiming her P90 at John. John held his arms out to the side and slowly started to stand up. "That thing is set to stun, right?" He asked.

"Yeah." Ronon replied.

John slowly turned to face his Satedan friend. "Good." Then he lunged, he'd hoped he'd be able to at the very least land a punch but Ronon was quicker. He saw a flash of red and everything went dark.

—-

As he predicted, when he came to he was in the Brig. So far, no one had come in, he started doubt his plan. What if he'd not given the Doc enough time to get it out of his system...

He counted the moments as he paced around the cell. He stopped as he heard footsteps, the door opened revealing Lucius, wearing an Atlantean headset. John rolled his eyes, glad he didn't have to hide his repulsion anymore, and sat down on the floor in the middle of the cell.

"Good morning, Colonel." He gestured to the bars of the cell as he walked over. "I want to apologise for this harsh treatment. I hate that Elizabeth had to do this."

John scoffed. "Cut the crap. So ... that herb of yours."

Lucius grinned leaning forward on the bars. "One of my greatest discoveries. Well, it's my _only_ great discovery, but you've got to admit, it's pretty great."

"How did you get by before that?"

"I was a baker. Bread, mostly. The occasional muffin at festival time." Lucius scrunched his face as though his disdained talking about his humble roots.

"So that herb pretty much changed everything."

Lucius chuckled. "Yeah." He pulled up a chair outside the cell and sat down. "Yeah, I baked it into my own bread - I like to experiment - and I noticed that people started to like me ... well, hate me less, but pretty soon it became like. So I perfected a potion. It worked great for years. Then the Wraith set up an outpost on the only planet where I could get the herb. I knew I could never go back there."

John nodded in understanding, it all came together now. "'Til' we showed up."

"I'm telling you, it was fate. And everybody wanted to help, so I let them. See, that's the great thing about this herb. Nobody gets hurt. They just want to help me all the time. What's wrong with that? I'm a nice guy. I never make them do anything they didn't wanna do."

John raised an eyebrow. "Six wives." He said pointedly, he was definitely sure Lucius would have a hard time explaining that to them once they were off the potion.

Lucius raised his eyebrows and smiled wickedly at John. "Sometimes all at once." Bile rose up in John's throat, he didn't think his disgust for this man could have gotten any greater. Lucius noticed John's expression and stood up defensively. "You know, when you get over this cold, you and I are gonna have a long chat, face to face, and I've got a feeling we're gonna become the best of friends, and you're gonna want to help me, too, all the time ..." He grinned at John. "... and you'll love it. Just like your Riles." Lucius licked his lips.

John clenched his fists. "Stay away from her!"

"Don't worry, I won't do anything she doesn't _beg_ me for." He winked at John.

Blood pounded in his ears. "Just a warning, Lucius: you get too close to me, it'll be the last thing you do."

"That's alright, Colonel. I'm in no rush." He must've gotten a message as Lucius looked up and tapped his radio. "Yeah, go ahead, Carson."

"Alright, I'll be right down." He looked back at John. "I've got to go get an inoculation. We'll talk after. I'll tell Aly you said hello."

John's eyes narrowed. "He's giving you the A.T.A. therapy?"

"Yeah. Isn't that great?" He gave John a final grin and then left the room.

John hoped this was part of what Beckett had been working on. He just hated being stuck inside a cell, waiting for it to happen. Leaving Riles in the hands of that man.

After what John assumed to be the longest 20 minutes go his life, the doors opened again. But this time it was Beckett. John jumped to his feet as the cell door opened. Beckett was standing there with all of John's equipment. "Let's do this." John smiled at the doctor and clapped him on the shoulder, gearing up for the next stage of their plan.

John stayed hidden behind another Jumper as Beckett led Lucius into Jumper three. He counted to 30 and then with a stunner in his hand walked up the ramp. "I'll take it from here." The satisfaction he felt when he ripped the headset off Lucius and threw him out of the pilot's seat was unmatched.

Lucius' jaw was dropped open in shock. "Wait - you're supposed to be in jail." John pulled out some zip ties and roughly pulled Lucius' arms behind his back, making sure the cuffs were extra secure. "Carson." He attempted to plead.

"Save your breath. Your charm no longer has any effect on me." Beckett sounded back to normal, but he seemed more pissed than John had ever seen before.

"No, no, but Carson, we're supposed to be best of friends." Lucius didn't seem to be able to comprehend what just happened.

John took his seat in the pilot's chair. "Carson didn't give you the A.T.A. gene."

"What?"

Beckett had a sly smile on his face. "I'm afraid it's a serum that effectively neutralises the chemical in that herb of yours. Took some myself."

"Oh." Lucius' face dropped, Carson turned and left the Jumper to go reverse the affects in the personnel. "I don't know what that means."

John started up the Jumper and started taking off. "It means we can have that face-to-face conversation you always wanted us to have. The only thing that will happen is you'll catch my cold." He couldn't help but smile in triumph, he was going to make him regret ever meeting them. "Remind me again about what you said you'd do to Riles?"

—-

By the time John got back from his little chat with Lucius, everyone had been given the serum. Lorne and his men were waiting for them in the bay as they landed to escort Lucius down to the brig. They all had stern faces, John had to suppress a laugh, he would not want to be Lucius right now.

"John!" Riles' came running up the staircase.

"Hey Riles!" John smiled as he realised her expression was back to normal - no more creepy drugged look. She was back to being his Riles. "You look better."

She winced. "I feel better. I can't even start to tell you how strange it feels." She started chewing on her lip and looked down at the floor. "I would have done anything he asked, without question. Nothing else mattered but making him happy." Her body trembled slightly.

John pulled her into him and chuckled. "Come on, it's over now." Her face broke into a small smile. "Though you do realise you have your favourite cold to thank." He grinned.

Riles just rolled her eyes. "If you think that means I'm letting you stay with me tonight, i'm afraid you're going to be severely disappointed." She chuckled.

"But it's a hero!" He said before breaking out into a another coughing fit.

Riles pushed away from him and skipped a few steps away from him, her eyes twinkling and her mouth open in a wide smile. "Don't care! Hit me up when you're germ free!" She stuck her tongue out.

—

It took them a couple of days to administer the serum to all of the people in Lucius' village. John heard a never ending tirade of complaints from every guard assigned to watch Lucius whilst he stayed in the Brig. They all wanted nothing more than to open the bars and give him a swift kick, but they all managed to control their urges.

John couldn't say the same about Lucius' village. His team had just stepped back through the gate from dropping Lucius off.

"So, how was Lucius' homecoming?" Elizabeth called from the control room balcony.

The team made their way up, unclipping and unzipping their tac vests as they went. "Well, they didn't kill him, although I do see a string of divorces in his future." John couldn't keep the smile off his face as he remembered the hoard of angry wives that had greeted Lucius. One ex-wife was enough for John.

"That's if they haven't strung him up first." Ronon seemed to be amused by his dark thought.

Rodney kept his face serious and tried to sound clinical. "Well, the townspeople are over their withdrawal and on the mend, so I doubt that will happen."

"That is, unless we discover he's revealed the location of Atlantis to anyone." Teyla added.

"Or told anyone anything about the personnel." Riles added.

Ronon smirked. "In which case I said I would track him down, hang him by his feet, and cut off his ..."

Elizabeth clapped her hands together. "Thank you! We get the idea."

Ronon and Riles smiled at each other, John knew if he'd let them escort Lucius by themselves he wouldn't have made it there in one piece.

John turned to Elizabeth, still feeling slightly smug. "So everyone here, uh, back to normal?"

Carson nodded, But John didn't miss the subtle Elizabeth exchange of embarrassed glances. "We're still fine, John." Elizabeth wanted nothing more than for him to drop the subject.

But John couldn't help himself. "No lingering desires? Secret longings for his touch?!"

Beckett sighed. "It's embarrassing enough without you constantly reminding us, thank you."

John held his hands up, smiling. "Alright, alright." Then he felt a sudden wave of awe about his good friend Rodney. He's had such a difficult week,and all John wanted to do was be as helpful as possible. He turned and placed his hand lightly on his friends shoulder "Hey, buddy, I'd better get back and clean your quarters before the next scout." He gave him a friendly smile and skipped his way down towards Rodney's quarters.

Happily, John walked through the corridors, he was almost at the living quarters. "John!" Riles' voice made him turn around. She was running towards him, her face slightly tinged red. She must've run all the way from the Gateroom to catch him.

"What you doing Riles?" he slowed his pace to allow her to fall into step with him.

"I was just looking for you." She gave him a wicked smile. "Y'know, Rodney said his quarters can wait. Now your colds gone I thought it was time to let you out of quarantine." She bit bit down on her lip as she spoke, John found he could't take his eyes off them. Remembering the feel of them trailing down his body. Riles lent in towards him. "Come on you are the hero of the moment, don't you want to claim your prize?" Her fingers slowly trailed down his chest, he felt like his legs might melt from underneath him.

Her other hand was on his shoulder drawing down towards his hand, her fingernails digging in. The sensation almost made him growl. All thoughts of Rodney vanished from his head as she clamped down on his wrist and led him quickly towards her room. All he could think was thank god he'd gotten over his cold.

 **A/N I really enjoyed writing this chapter, and really want to do another John POV one later one.**

 **Let me know what you think.**


	28. Chapter 28

**A/N Sorry for the delay in uploading this chapter, I really struggled to find the time and when I came to writing the Asuran episode, there wasn't anything I felt Alice could contribute to the original episode to make it 'hers'. So I decided to skip ahead to the next one, referrencing the events that happened in the previous episode.**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

It had been two weeks since their encounter with the Asuran's and Alice was still having nightmares. Everyone who had been in the Stargate programme for more than a month had heard about the replicators, they had become one of those scary initiation stories the veterans used to psyche out the fresh blood. Though the stories had been over exaggerated, the thought of something being able to probe your mind and make you see things that weren't real terrified Alice. And now she'd experienced it first hand. She was still having nightmares about the images Niam had made her see during their interrogation and pain of his hand entering her skull. Flashes of John's tortured bloody body, Atlantis under siege and the sounds of gunfire as her the bodies of her team dropped around her.

Apparently, each one of them had been given a completely different scenario. Elizabeth had theorised it was a way for the Asuran's to test the traits of the Ancient's 'prodigy' creation. But it didn't make Alice sleep any better. Or John for that matter.

It turned out Alice wasn't the only one having nightmares, when the images running through her mind woke her up in a cold sweat John was already sat up in bed, reading his copy of War and Peace. It had gotten so bad, Alice had been avoiding spending the night with John, she couldn't stand letting John seeing her so weak and vulnerable.

She drew comfort from the fact that everyone else seemed just as shaken and withdrawn since that mission, Rodney trembled when ever someone mentioned the Asuran's, Teyla would just avoid eye contact and John would change the subject. Ronon was the only one who didn't seem phased by what he'd experienced. Though from what he'd told them, his simulation had just been him locked in a room, fighting for hours on hours - which to them didn't sound like something out of the ordinary for him.

When she couldn't sleep Alice thought about Elizabeth's theory. According to Elizabeth, she believed that other than extracting information about Atlantis the Asuran's had used the mind probe to investigate why the Ancient's had abandoned them. Why the human race was the favoured progeny.

Since them Alice had tried to decide what traits the Asuran's had been testing. Ronon's was easy, they were testing strength and determination. Without knowing much about the other's scenarios Alice just had to guess based on her friend's most prominent traits. For Teyla it had to be her loyalty and Rodney his response to fear, both of these seemed like they'd be qualities the Asuran's would be fascinated by. Alice was sure they'd been curious about her bonds with John and the team. But no matter how hard she thought about it, she couldn't decide what trait they'd tested John for. But whatever had happened, what ever they'd put John through it had rattled him so much that he would't even talk to her about it. Though she couldn't blame him, she wasn't about to tell him what she'd seen.

Their next few missions were standard supply and check-ins. Alice had managed to find some time to go see the Taranan's as well, they were starting to get well settled on their new planet. Alice had spent some time with Carson delivering medical and food supplies, to get them started. And things slowly started getting back to normal, the nightmares started becoming less frequent and her mind stopped picturing the lifeless, bloody bodies of her team.

Two more weeks like this and Alice was sure they would have completely moved on and put the horrors of what the Asuran's had done behind them. But like every day for the past two years, they stepped through the gate and everything changed.

* * *

Trees and leaves whipped past Alice's head as she ran, blood pounding in her ear, shooting pains pulsed in her chest as she pushed herself to move faster. Rodney and Teyla were just ahead of her. She could hear John and Ronon behind her firing at their pursuers.

"Rodney, dial the damned Gate. Don't wait for us!" John shouted over her head.

They couldn't be more than a few meters away from the gate, but in the dense forest it was almost impossible to tell until they were almost on top of it. Alice squinted, Teyla and Rodney had disappeared through the trees and she could hear the familiar sounds of the gate dialling. The treeline was just up ahead. Throwing her hand out she grabbed hold of a tree and swung herself around it. Holding up her P90, she aimed it back where they'd come from and fired past John and Ronon. Aiming carefully so she didn't hit them. "Move!" She screamed at the top of her lungs over the gunfire. She could just start to make out the shapes of the men following them. Ronon and John had almost reached her now, but she didn't stop firing.

The gate open behind her, and Rodney yelled over the radio to the control room. "Go!" John grabbed Alice's vest as he ran past shoving her out in front of him and towards the gate. Alice didn't stop moving, she ran as fast as she could. Right before she hit the puddle, she twisted around to see John and Ronon only a few steps behind her. Then she felt the familiar chill as her body passed through the event horizon, and her boots hit the gateroom floor. She kept moving out of the way to make space for the men. Ronon let out a loud yell as he flew through the gate, breaking his fall with a well-practiced commando roll. Alice waited expectantly for John, but right after Ronon rolled through the puddle vanished. "Wait!" She yelled at the control room, but it was no use the connection was gone.

Medics were rushing towards them, but Alice brushed them off. Elizabeth ran down the stairs. "Where's Sheppard?"

Alice felt her gut clench as she stared at the gate in horror. "I don't know, he was right behind me."

—————

Alice wore a scowl on her face as she walked back through the gate into Atlantis next to Evan, Teyla, Ronon and Rodney. Elizabeth was already waiting for them. "Anything?"

It took her a moment to answer, doing her best to keep the frustration from her voice. "We couldn't find a trace of John or any sign of whoever took him." She kept her eyes trained on the gun in her hands.

"And they covered their tracks well." Ronon hovered around Alice protectively. She'd noticed him doing it on the planet, it was like he was afraid to let her out of his sight.

Rodney held up the tablet in his hand. "There's a good chance he was transported offworld, so I gathered the last fifty or so Gate addresses that were dialled."

Elizabeth nodded grimly. "That should be helpful. But since the transmission which summoned us to the planet was sent using a code we gave to the Genii, that will be our starting point."

Alice felt her insides boil with anger, Evan put his hand on her shoulder to calm her, but she shook it off. "What are you gonna do — politely ask the Genii if they took John?"

"Yes, I am." Elizabeth gave her a stern look.

The Gate started dialling behind them. Rodney pointed at it. "So this ...?"

Elizabeth held her chin up resolutely, her best diplomatic face on. "Yes, it is." The gate opened and Elizabeth held her hand up. "Security teams, stand by. Lower the shield." Alice stepped over to the side with Ronon following her like a shadow just as the shield dropped and only a moment later, Ladon Radim -- the new leader of the Genii -- stepped through, followed by three Genii guards. Elizabeth stepped forward, though Alice noticed she didn't attempt to shake his hand. "Welcome, Ladon."

"I came as soon as I ..."

Ladon didn't get a chance to finish, before Ronon advanced aggressively to get in his face. "What've you done with Sheppard?"

Both Teyla and Evan started moving forward, their bodies tense, ready to break up a fight. But Alice didn't move, as far as she was concerned they should let Ronon at him. But Elizabeth just calmly put her hand on Ronon's shoulder, if she was alarmed she didn't show it. "Ronon. He is here as our guest." Ronon shifted his weight side to side, like a panther preparing to pounce. But one glance back Elizabeth made him back away reluctantly.

Ladon threw him a black look, then turned to Elizabeth. "How can I help?"

Elizabeth looked at the crowd around them, then gestured up towards her office. "It would be best fo discuss this in my office."

Alice clenched her jaw, as she watched Elizabeth politely lead Ladon up the stairs. They were treating him like visiting royalty, if it was up to her... She hadn't even realised she'd moved until Evan stepped in front of her. "Nope. Come on." He put his hands on her shoulders trying to guide her away.

"Don't get in my way." Alice snapped, determined to find out what she needed from Ladon - one way or another. She tried to step around him, but he continued to mirror her actions.

"Elizabeth can handle this." Evan narrowed his eyes at her. "You'll only make things worse."

Her eyes tracked Ladon's movement up to the control room. "Screw that, he knows something." Using her forearm she pushed past Evan.

She hadn't expected Evan to fight her, but before she knew it he had grabbed her arm and spun her back towards the gate. "Aly, let Elizabeth do her job." His voice changed to the commanding tone he used on the new recruits.

Ronon stepped protectively inbetween them, pulling himself up to his full height and glaring down at Evan. Alice knew if she told him he would block Evan long enough for her to get passed. But she wasn't about to start a fight in the middle of the gateroom. Especially in front of the Genii. "Ronon. It's fine."

She took a final look a Ladon as he stepped into Elizabeth's office, getting comfortable on one of her sofa's. Alice felt her lip curl up into a scowl. Then she whipped her head around and stormed off to the armoury. She discarded her gun and vest ungraciously in her locker, and slammed the door shut. It made a loud clang before swinging back open. Letting out a frustrated growl she spun around and started pacing the room, her hands clasped around the back of her neck. "Breaking the locker isn't going to help." Evan slipped his own gear off and placed it in his locker.

Alice huffed and kept walking. "It's just..." she pursed her lips, she stopped pacing and dragged her hand down to her rib. "I feel like we're doing nothing. We should be out there kicking down doors and looking for John."

Evan closed his locker, than walked over to do the same to hers. Re-organising her gun so the door could close. "I know, but if the Genii do have him then it means they want something. And Elizabeth will figure out what is it." Alice nodded, slinking down onto the bench that sat in the middle of the room. "No one's going to stop until we find him." Evan sat down next to her and grabbed her hand. "You're not alone Aly-cat." She looked up and the smile on his face melted away the rest of her anger. She wasn't sure if that was for the best though, now all she was left with was the tug of a dark pit that was twisting her insides together.

"Riley! Major!" One of the marines ran into the doorway, "they need you in the control room. Now." Alice exchanged a quick glance with Evan, then they both jumped to their feet and ran for the control room. When they got there the others, including Ladon, were gathered around one of the display screens. Knitting her brows together she stepped closer trying to see what they were all looking at. Then she saw it, a man's face. Instantly the pit in her stomach felt like a black hole. She would never forget the man's twisted smile or cruel eyes as they stared straight at her through the screen.

"Who the hell is he?" Ronon narrowed his eyes, his eyes darting back and forth between Alice and the screen.

Alice felt like she couldn't breathe, she'd forgotten Ronon hadn't been apart of their team then. Back then they still had Aiden. The black hole got bigger, she gripped her stomach with an arm in an attempt to control her emotions. "Acastus Kolya. He was a Genii commando, he led a strike team who tried to seize Atlantis." Her body felt like it was seizing up, but she fought to control it. She didn't want the others to see her weak. Her gaze drifted over to Ladon, who had paled significantly. "He was part of the team too." The scars in her shoulder and side from Kolya's gunshots spasmed.

"I do know you're there, Doctor. The existence of Atlantis is no secret among the Genii. It would be pointless not to answer." Kolya was standing in a dark room, his face filled the frame so Alice couldn't see anything around him.

"Open a channel." Elizabeth ordered then cleared her throat. "This is Doctor Weir."

"Oh, good. I wanted to be certain you were there to see this." He stepped aside to reveal John sitting behind him. He was tied to a chair with a gag stuffed in his mouth. Alice's heart stopped, her eyes tore over the image of him. To her relief he looked unscathed, extremely pissed off, but otherwise fine. She started breathing again. Her brain started flashing up images of his bloody body from the Replicator's simulation

"What have you done to him?" Rodney yelled.

"Nothing whatsoever, Doctor McKay." Kolya was playing with them. He was sadistic, she could see the spark of pleasure in his eyes as he heard the distress in Rodney's voice.

Rodney rolled his eyes. "What are you planning to do?"

"It's quite simple. I'd like to make a trade. Is Captain Riley there?"

Alice was ready to spew a slew of strong words at him when Elizabeth held up her hand stopping her. "Before we continue this conversation another second, I wanna speak with Sheppard." Alice knew why Elizabeth wouldn't let her talk, Kolya knew about the connection John and her had, and he would exploit it anyway he could.

"Be my guest." He turned towards John, but he didn't make any move to remove the gag.

Rodney help up a finger. "We'll rephrase that, too: we would like him to be able to speak to us."

Kolya grinned back to the camera, glad that Rodney seemed to be catching onto his game. "Very well."

He gestured to a guard, who walked over to John and pulled down his gag. "On my command authority, whatever he asks, don't do it, even ..." Before he could finish the guard tugged the gag back into position and he glared fiercely at the guard. Alice winced, half of her wished she hadn't heard that.

Kolya cackled and turned back to the camera. "Well, as you can see, he's his usual charming self."

"Explain your terms, Kolya." Elizabeth's lips pressed together in a slight grimace.

"I have heard the familiar voices of yourself and Doctor McKay, but there is another person I know is there who has yet to speak. Ladon Radim is with you, is he not?"

Elizabeth glanced at Ladon from her out of the corner of her eye. "Why would Ladon be here?" Alice watched Ladon's expression carefully. Looking for any sign that he might be in on this.

"Well, to preserve his precious alliance with you, Doctor, so that the Genii might remain in the favour of Atlantis. My sources have already confirmed this, so there's no point in denying the fact. Turn him over to me, and Colonel Sheppard will be released immediately."

Landon avoided looking at any of them. Elizabeth rubbed her bottom lip, Alice knew her conviction was wavering slightly. "I'll need time to consider your offer."

Koyla looked like he'd expected that answer. His lips curled into a wicked smirk. "Allow me to help expedite your decision."

He turned away from the camera, someone must have been operating it as it began to pan across the room to a doorway. For a moment nothing happened, then through the microphone Alice could hear the sounds of scuffling. Two Genii guards appeared in the doorway dragging in a Wraith. Its hair was long and wild and it moved across the room with difficultly, heavily relying on the guards to support it.

Alice's blood turned to ice. "Oh my God." As soon as she said it, her hand flung up to her mouth, realising her mistake.

"Ah Captain, there you are. I'm glad you'll be there to witness this." Kolya's grin twisted even more.

Alice couldn't take her eyes off the screen as the guards brought the Wraith infront of John. His eyes widen and he struggled against the restraints as he realised what was about to happen. Alice felt someone grip her shoulder, but she didn't look to see who it was. "This isn't going to work Kolya!" She felt her chest contracting, making it hard for her to breathe. "John could have left you to rot down in that hole when we last met, Kolya. He does not deserve this." She yelled desperately.

The smile disappeared from Kolya's face. "Let's be clear, Captain. No-one does."

"Don't do this." She pleaded before she could think, even though she knew she was giving Kolya exactly what he wanted. The guards unshackled the Wraith's right hand and took off a leather sheath which was strapped around its lower arm. Her hand pressed into her chest, and she squeezed her lips together to stop her from pleading again. It would only make this worse.

Kolya looked directly into the camera. "The choice is yours, Doctor Weir. Do we have an arrangement?" Alice watched as the guard ripped open John's jacket. His dog tags hung in the middle of his chest just over his heart. She couldn't bring herself to look at Elizabeth, to see her face agonising at the decision she was making. Her hand pressed even harder against her sternum, she could feel her fingernails digging into the soft skin of her palm, breaking the skin. But she didn't relax, if anything the pain helped her focus. Helped her not to fall apart.

"Very well." Kolya nodded to the guards, who released the Wraith. The wraith hesitated, as if waiting to be held back or shot. Then it snarled showing all its pointed teeth and slammed its hand into John's chest. John's face contorted in agony. Alice's whole body shook, her breath started coming in heavy gasps. She watched as the life was being sucked out of John, she wanted to look away, to cover her eyes, but she stood frozen on the spot. Somewhere in the back of her mind she was aware of Elizabeth yelling, shouting for them to stop. A guard jolted the Wraith with an electrified stick, it growled but the guards grabbed on tightly and hauled it back away from John. John gasped for breath, a bloodied wound visible on his chest. His eyes were glazed over, and he looked like he was about to pass out.

"You just crossed a line, Kolya." Elizabeth's voice was trembling slightly.

"We've found that a minimum of three hours between feeding sessions is crucial to ensure the body has sufficient time to recover from the trauma. That's the time you have to decide. Three hours." Then he was gone.

Alice blinked, she didn't know if what she had just seen was real. A few moments passed, she felt everyone in the rooms eyes on her, but her brain felt like it couldn't comprehend what she'd just seen. All she could see was John's face twisted in agony. Her mouth opened, but nothing came out.

"Alice…" Elizabeth started.

"I'm…I…Just…" Alice didn't know what she was trying to say. Before she knew it, Evan was leading her down towards Elizabeth's office with Ronon and Teyla just a few steps behind her. Slowly, she sat down onto a chair sliding her hands loosely into her lap. Her mind started catching up, John was being tortured, by Kolya. It was like she was stuck in the Replicator's simulation all over again, helpless to save anyone, to do anything. Images of his dead body rushed into her head. She snapped her head up to look at Elizabeth, the fear causing a surge of adrenaline in her system. "We need to get him out of there. Now."

"I will do everything in my power. Alice…" Elizabeth sat on the arm of the chair, her hands fidgeting together. "The exchange." She said simply.

Alice took a moment, Elizabeth was asking her to decide. Her head suddenly felt dizzy, she wanted nothing more than to say to hand Ladon over. But she couldn't. "No." Her voice was barely louder than a whisper. "Even if we give him Ladon, he'll just kill John anyway." and John had ordered her not too, but she didn't say that.

Elizabeth placed her hand tenderly on Alice's back. "Okay."

Alice stood up, and walked back out the door. Her body rigid, but at least she'd stopped shaking. She couldn't afford to breakdown or be weak. She walked straight up to Ladon, stepping closer until she was almost touching him. Everyone tensed, ready to pull her off him. "If he dies, I'll hold you personally responsible. And I promise there will be no where in this galaxy you can hide." Small beads of sweat formed on Ladon's brow. "Now. Let's find him."

————

Alice stepped back through the gate, immediately rushed up the steps to the control room. "You got it wrong!" She yelled at Ladon, preparing to throw a punch at him. But Evan ran up and grabbed her across the chest, pulling her back. Ladon flinched and moved back behind Elizabeth.

"Alice!" Elizabeth gave her a stern look. Alice glared at her, but she took in a few breaths allowing herself to relax. Feeling the tension leave her. Evan let her go. "Ladon. Follow me." Elizabeth headed for her office. Ladon lingered, his eyes focused on Alice. She narrowed her eyes, warning him - he'd deal with her or Elizabeth. He dropped his gaze and followed after Elizabeth.

Alice dragged her hands over her face, then sat down at the nearest console. She wanted to be close enough to watch Ladon. "Aly..." Evan started, but his voice faltered. She pursed her lips and turned to look at her friend. He pulled up the chair next to her and sat down. "I can't imagine..." but before he could finish the gate began to dial.

"Unscheduled offworld activation!" Alice felt her heart clench. "Looks to be another video feed." Chuck tapped a few keys and the screen began to flicker.

Elizabeth ran out of her office, with Ladon behind her. "Patch it through and open a channel."

Once again, Kolya's face filled the frame. "Doctor Weir. As promised."

"Where's Sheppard?" Elizabeth was done with the pleasantries.

His lips twisted up. "I'm pleased to see you're wasting no time. So neither will I." He walked across the room, the camera following him, until John came into view. Once again he was sitting bound and gagged in a chair. This time the Wraith was already there, snarling and staring hungrily down at John. One of the guards untied the sheath around the Wraith's arm. Alice clamped her hand over her mouth letting out a small whimper as John turned his head away, and the Wraith shook the sheath off its arm flexing its fingers eagerly.

"Will you turn Ladon Radim over to me in exchange for Colonel Sheppard?" Kolya looked between John and the camera. But all Alice could focus on was John's face, he was shaking his head - telling them not to negotiate. She knew Elizabeth had seen it, but she could feel her eyes on her. Without taking her eyes off John's face Alice swallowed and nodded. Her resolve was absolute, she wouldn't betray John's orders. Even if it cost her everything.

"Doctor Weir?"

"No." Elizabeth's voice was hoarse. Alice watched as John nodded approvingly. And she braced herself, wrapping her free arm around her chest.

"I can only conclude you doubt my sincerity." He turns to his guards and gave them the signal. They released the Wraith. It turned and held its hand over John's chest, hesitating for a moment as John turned his face to glare at it. Then it slammed its hand down. John's face contorted as the Wraith roared in delight, then the Wraith blocked her view. Alice counted each second that passed, eight seconds that was all, but she wondered how many years that had taken from him.

"Enough." The guards dragged the Wraith away from John. He gasped for breath through his gag. Alice held her hand over her mouth, John's brown hair was almost completely grey and his face was sunken and older. "Three hours." Then the screen went dark.

Alice went straight for the balcony, her chest was constricting painfully. It suddenly felt like she was suffocating. The instant the door opened the wind buffeted against her face and she gasped for air. They couldn't give in. Not now. John would never forgive them if they traded his life. No matter what they were doing to him. She stepped up to the railing, her fingers wrapping themselves tightly around it. Right now she didn't trust her legs to hold her up.

"Aly." Evan whispered softly behind her.

Alice couldn't face him. She didn't want him to see her breaking. "I just need a minute." She was thankful her voice didn't shake.

"No one would blame you for being upset." He was closer to her now, his hand on her shoulder.

Alice let out a dry laugh. "How many times have we thought we'd lost John, or any member of my team." Alice knew the number was too high to count. "I can't lose my shit every time I think he's going to die." Her voice was starting to tremble now. "It's just embarrassing." Tears were forming in her eyes, but she wiped them away. She took in a deep breath, then faced Evan. "I'm fine."

Evan's eyes narrowed and examined her face, trying to read her. His mouth twitched and he dipped his head, moving aside so she could walk back into the control room. When they walked back in everyone stopped talking. They all watched Alice carefully, their faces full of sympathy. But they didn't have time to pity her or wallow in their own pain. They had to act now. She didn't look at Ladon, afraid she might change her mind about trading him. "What's our plan?"

————-

Alice paced up and down, biting down on her finger nails until they bled. Only a few more seconds to go. Another three hours down and they'd made no progress. Elizabeth was watching her carefully. "Alice." Her voice was barely louder than a whisper. "You don't need to be here."

Alice took her fingers away from her face. "I'm not going anywhere."

Her heart started racing as the gate dialled. For the third time today, Kolya's face filled the screen. A cruel smirk plastered on his scarred face. "He still has years ahead of him, Doctor Weir. My offer stands."

Elizabeth looked at Alice and held her chin up. "So does my answer."

Kolya seemed surprised by her constant defiance. "Then you're effectively ending his life. Captain Riley can't be on board with this."

Elizabeth shook her head. "I'm not gonna go there."

"Is Ladon there?"

Ladon copied Elizabeth's posture. "I am."

Kolya raised an eyebrow. "I can't help but wonder what you've told them so they'd choose you over one of their own."

"That I betrayed you. That I took for myself what you believed to be yours." Landon answered simply.

"The truth? I must say I'm surprised."

"If you release him, you may return to our people with my promise of amnesty."

Kolya smiled. "Please, Ladon, I trained you better than that. There are things that cannot be undone."

"You can still end this." She knew it was hopeless, Kolya just wasn't that kind of man. He would kill John just to spite them if nothing else. But it didn't stop her.

"Strange, I was just about to say the same thing." Alice tried to keep her composure, but her legs had started trembling as the Wraith was led over to John. "Take your fill." Kolya flicked his hand towards John.

This time the Wraith didn't hesitate, it sunk its filthy hand down onto John's chest. His head rolled back as Alice watched the life drain out of him. Her blood turned to ice and beside her, Ronon let out a cry of rage, and stormed away. Once again Alice found her mouth moving counting the seconds. Fifteen. Then it stopped.

"Who told you to stop?" Kolya spat.

The Wraith looked up at him. His hand dripping with John's blood. "He is near death. Shall I finish him?"

Tears streamed down Alice's face as she looked at John. His body had aged significantly now, his hair was white and his face was covered in wrinkles. Physically he now looked over 60 years old. Red hot rage boiled inside her, Kolya has stolen John's life, his future and she couldn't do anything about it.

Kolya seemed to consider it, glancing back at John's withered body. "Get it out of here." He waited until the Wraith was dragged back out of the room. "Now it's two hours." And the screen went black.

Alice whipped her head around to Ronon, he was giving Ladon a deadly stare. She wiped the tears from her cheeks. "If he's fed upon again, he's as good as dead." Carson yelled.

"We don't know that." Rodney tried to counter, his eyes were red and face contorted in grief.

She'd rarely seen Carson this agitated. "Aye, Rodney, we do. He may already be past the point of no return. We know that a large percentage of those that survive a partial feeding die anyway due to complications as a result of strain on the system. What appears as physical ageing is actually a by-product of a complex process we barely understand. I can't imagine him surviving another session, whether it's two hours or ten hours from now." Alice felt her breath catch in her throat, Carson looked at her ashamed and red. "Aly, I'm s-"

Before he could finish Ronon had turned aggressively to Ladon. "If you were half the man Sheppard is, you'd volunteer to make the trade yourself."

"Ronon enough!" Alice snapped. Even if Kolya would give up John for Ladon, he'd given them strict orders not to.

Ladon shook his head, his face grave. "The truth is, I'm not sure whether or not I would have made the trade if our roles were reversed." He turned to Elizabeth. "So I ask you, allow what you have done for me to be worth something. There's nothing more I can do here, but I can get you the information you need to find Sheppard if you allow me to return and interrogate the men who stole the codes from me."

Uncertain, Elizabeth glanced around at Alice and her team. Alice bit down on her lower lip approaching Ladon. Ronon moved aside for her. Landon didn't move or flinch, but she could see he was weary of her. He couldn't tell what she was about to do. "Whatever we can do. Right?" She turned to Ronon, who looked ready to break Ladon's neck. But finally he nodded, and Alice heard murmurs of agreement behind her. "Go."

————

Alice sat on the floor of the balcony. Ronon sat silently beside her. A loose piece of thread had unravelled from the edging of her pant leg. She tugged on it, pulling it loose from the material. It was about the length of her forearm. She stared at it curiously "Y'know some ancient Earth cultures believed the gods had a piece of string that represented every humans life. And every time it was someone's time to die they would cut the string."

She didn't know why this had come into her head, or why she felt the need to tell Ronon. "He's not dead yet. We're going to find him Aly." Ronon put his arm awkwardly around her shoulders.

Alice let out a shakey laugh, it had to be bad if Ronon was initiating physical contact. "Even if we do..." she trailed off. John's now wrinkled face was stuck in her head - maybe it would be better if they didn't get him back. Alice instantly felt guilty for thinking it. But John's life would never be the same, and if Carson was right even if they did rescue him he still might die.

"Ronon. Alice." Teyla opened the door and leaned through the doorway, gesturing towards the control room.

Alice took in a bracing breath and allowed Ronon to pull her up. "Here we go..." she murmured softly to herself. They all stood in front of the monitor waiting. Alice checked her watched, Kolya was now 10 minutes overdue. Everyone was getting twitchy. "Something must have happened." Alice chewed on her lip.

Rodney muttered and headed for Elizabeth's office. Alice followed quickly behind him. "Kolya's late." He announced as he stepped through the door.

"That is not like him." Teyla said concerned.

"We haven't heard anything from Ladon either."

Elizabeth interlaced her fingers. "We will."

Teyla sighed. "Is it possible they were in on this from the beginning?"

Elizabeth tensed her jaw. "No, I don't think so. Why would Ladon come here in the first place?"

Ronon crossed his arms over his chest. "Throw us off the scent."

"What kind of a plan would that be?" Rodney scoffed.

"They're Genii." Alice tapped her foot on the ground.

Rodney blinked. "True."

"Either way, there must be a reason why Kolya has not contacted us." Teyla huffed.

Carson shrugged. "Perhaps he knew it would take Colonel Sheppard more time to recover."

A heavy silence fell over the room. "None of us are saying what we're all thinking here." Rodney broke it. That he's already dead and there wasn't anything to show us, Alice thought to herself.

Elizabeth stood up, casting a wary glance at Alice. "No, Rodney, we're not."

Alice pushed past Rodney on her way back out to the control room. "We're not giving up. Not until we see a body."

The gate dialled and Alice rushed to Chuck's side. Her heart beated rapidly. "I'm receiving the new Genii I.D.C. along with a video feed."

"Ladon." Alice looked up at Elizabeth.

She nodded. "Put it on the screen."

Alice didn't think she'd ever be so pleased to see Ladon's face filling up the screen. "Are you receiving me?"

"We were starting to get worried."

"Yes, I'm sure you had doubts. The truth is, the interrogation took longer than I hoped. We've secured the location of Kolya's base. I'm forwarding you the dialling coordinates right now."

Alice looked around in surprise. "Are you certain?"

"Certain enough to send a full brigade through the Gate. It will take us an hour to marshal our forces. I thought you might want that time." Ladon was smiling.

Elizabeth held her hand up before Alice could move. "What will we be up against?"

"Nothing one of your cloaked Jumpers and my good friend Ronon couldn't handle. I ask only that you leave Kolya for my own forces to find." That was all Alice needed to hear, she took off for the armoury, Ronon right on her heels.

Alice sat in the pilot's seat, adrenaline coursed through her veins making her hands tremble. Luckily her team hadn't seemed to notice, and a good thing the jumper didn't rely on sensitive hand controls. She focused her mind and nodded. Teyla dialled the gate and Alice lowered the jumper into the gateroom.

"Good luck, and bring him home." Elizabeth was standing at the balcony smiling.

"Alright, seat belts on people." She called back to the team of people piled into the Jumper. Then she took in a deep breath and pushed the Jumper through the gate. She cloaked as soon as she could, but it didn't stop the men around the gate from getting a few well aimed shots in. Slowly she let out her breath and pulled up the life signs detector on the HUD.

"The facility is straight ahead." Teyla leaned over the gate controls to point at a large cluster of dots on the HUD.

"There's life signs on the surface, miles from the bunker." Alice told the map to focus in on the life signs, scaling up the map.

"How many?" Ronon shuffled in his seat. Alice could tell he was itching to get out and find Kolya.

"Well it was eight, now it's down to just two."

Carson stumbled to stand beside Teyla. "What's going on down there?"

Alice adjusted the jumpers course towards the dots, willing the machine to fly faster.

"Well, one of them is definitely Sheppard. His subcutaneous transmitter's still broadcasting." Rodney's voice came from behind Alice, he had hooked his tablet into the Jumper's main systems.

"Could the other one be Kolya?" Teyla whipped her head back to stare at him.

Ronon pulled his gun out of it's holster. "Let's hope so."

"Right, I'm putting up down just a hundred metres to the south of their position." She marked the spot on the map and started lowering the Jumper. Alice practically sprang out of her seat before the jumper had even settled on the ground. She ran past the group of marines, slapping the cargo door control on the way. With Ronon beside her they took off into the forest. This kind of terrain was Ronon's specialty, so she fell back to let him take the lead. She watched carefully as he raised a clenched fist, then slowly squatted down. Alice mirrored his movements as silently as possible. The others were still further behind them. Her eyes darted around the area, she wasn't sure why they'd stopped but then it didn't matter. Screams filled the air, she knew they were John's, without waiting for Ronon's signal she ran forward gun raised to see the Wraith crouched over John. Ronon charged past her, hurling the Wraith off John. Alice headed straight for John.

What she saw left her stunned and made her stop just before she reached him. John was lying on the ground, but he looked completely normal. "Wait!" Alice stumbled backwards as John pushed himself up to his feet. "Leave him." He pointed to the Wraith.

Alice's heart was beating so fast she was sure it was about to explode. "What's going on!?" She raised her gun, but she wasn't sure who to aim it at.

John glanced at her, but only for a second before glaring back at Ronon. "That's an order!"

The others burst through the trees, they'd obviously heard all the commotion as half of the guns were on the Wraith and the others wavered slight towards John, as they took in his appearance.

Carson ran up to Alice's side. "I don't understand. We all saw what he did to you."

John walked past both of them towards the Wraith. "He just undid it. Lower your weapons."

"How is this possible?" Alice was glad Teyla asked, because her brain seemed to have frozen.

John shook his head. "Don't ask me." He looked down at his hands the shock clear on his face.

They all turned to stare at the Wraith. He was watching their exchange warily. "The gift of life is reserved only for our most devout worshippers ... and our brothers."

It started coming together in Alice's head. John gave the Wraith a respectful nod. "Well, I guess there's a lot about the Wraith we don't know."

The Wraith stood on guard, he gazed around at Alice and the marines. "Sheppard gave me back my life. I merely repaid the debt."

"What debt? Are you kidding?! I mean, he looks younger than he did before!" Rodney shrieked.

Alice tilted her head. "What about Kolya?"

John's eyes grew wide, he patted down his jacket, then cursed. He ran and snatched a radio off the ground and held it up to his mouth. "Kolya, this is Sheppard. Kolya? I figured you'd run. Next time, I kill you on sight, you hear me?" But only static came through. John growled in frustration and threw the radio on the ground. "Let's get off this rock."

Alice lowered her gun, and turned to the Wraith. Ronon held out his gun to John. "What about him?"

John looked at the Wraith. "We had a deal, right?"

It let out a dry chuckle. "I did not truly expect you to honour it."

John licked his lips, then took the blaster off Ronon. He walked forward and fired, hitting the Wraith in the chest. But even from where she was standing Alice could tell it had been set on stun. "You didn't kill him." Ronon ran forward taking the blaster to look at the setting to confirm his thoughts.

"No, I didn't. Get him in the Jumper. We're gonna drop him off somewhere." The marines bent down to pick up the Wraith and John walked over towards Rodney. "Thanks for showing up!" He scoffed sarcastically.

Alice and Teyla exchanged confused looks, as everyone started filling back through the trees towards the Jumper. Alice's heart was still beating hard, two minutes ago, everything had been life or death, and now they were calmly heading back. And John looked completely unscathed.

———

Alice didn't speak while they made their way back to Atlantis. She'd insisted on flying back, ordering John into the back to have Carson look over him. They'd dropped the Wraith on a nearby planet that was the supposed site of a Wraith outpost. Though John argued, Carson made him to report immediately to the infirmary once they were back in the city.

Everyone else headed to bed. The stress and anxiety of the day finally caught up with everyone. They were all basically dead on their feet, but Alice didn't feel like going back to her room. Instead she headed for the south pier. When the Daedalus wasn't landed here it was one of the few spots you could actually get outside of the city along the piers. She sat with her legs hanging over the edge, black waves lapped at the walls beneath her. "There you are." She wasn't surprised to hear John's voice, she knew he'd come find her.

She didn't turn around, instead she kept her eyes focused on the white tips of the waves far out into the distance. "Hey. How do you feel?"

He sat down on the ledge beside her, close enough she could feel the warmth from his body, but not touching. He clasped his hands on his lap. "Honestly, fine. And according to Carson I'm in perfect health."

Alice let out a dry laugh. "Really?" She turned to look at his eyes. "You're almost tortured to death and you're in perfect health." She shook her head - only John.

John smirked and just shrugged. "Guess I just got lucky."

Alice held his gaze for a moment before dropping it back down to the waves below. "Yes. You are. But you almost weren't."

John shuffled closer and wrapped his arm around her shoulder. "Do you know what got me through?" Using his index finger he tilted her chin up so her eyes locked with his. "Rodney."

Alice blinked, then they both burst out into laughter. She shoved him playfully away from her. "Just when I thought you were going to say something romantic."

John have her his signature lopsided grin. Then pulled her in to place a gentle kiss on her lips. "I just hoped i'd get one more chance to see your smile." Alice relaxed into his arms, drawing her arms around his waist.

Her head rested against his chest, so she could hear his heart beat reverberating through his muscles. "I honestly thought-"

"I know. So did I." He interrupted her, pressing his lips against her head. There were a million questions buzzing in her head that she wanted to ask him, but there was only one she was scared to ask. And it was probably the simplest of him all. Are you okay?

She knew he wasn't. No normal person would be, but then again John wasn't normal. Despite the fact that physically he was fine, the mental affect of what he'd been through had to be tremendous. Though she couldn't bring herself to ask him about it. She knew he would just brush it off, tell her he was fine, that she had nothing to worry about. Probably make some ridiculous and terrible joke. He had to say that, he was supposed to be their untouchable, unbreakable commander. He couldn't let them see a crack in his shell, even her. And it worried her, at the end of the day he was still just a man and he could only take so much.

She breathed in his scent and closed her eyes, and let the sounds of the ocean beneath them briefing wash away her worries. She would ask him, but not tonight. She was just thankful to have him in her arms.


	29. Chapter 29

**A/N sorry about the long wait for this chapter, but hopefully it will be worth it!**

 **Despite how much I love Stargate, I've always felt they could have done more to focus on the wellbeing and effects the adventures have on the team members. Hopefully, I've managed to capture some of this.**

 **Happy readings!**

It had been a couple of weeks since the incident with Kolya, and although Carson had cleared John for duty, Elizabeth had been hesitant to throw him straight back into the field. And Alice agreed. Despite his constant assurance he was fit both mentally and physically, Alice didn't mind having a slow couple of weeks.

The rest of the team stayed active, helping other teams with supply and recon missions, whilst John stayed on Atlantis. For all intents and purposes, he did seem fine. He acted exactly the same as he had before he'd been taken, cracking jokes and annoying Rodney whenever he got the chance. He'd been assessed by Doctor Heightmeyer when they'd returned and although she said there may be lingering trauma he didn't seem 'unstable' or in her opinion 'incapable of performing his regular duties' and it would probably best for him to return to his normal routine as soon as possible - minus the field work. Alice wasn't quite sure though, once you'd been through a few psychological assessments you knew how to give them the answers they wanted and needed to clear you for active duty. Elizabeth must've thought the same, as she asked everyone to keep an eye on him, make sure he was as okay as he said. Alice hadn't needed any prompting though, she knew John probably better than anyone else in the city. So, she'd been keeping a subtle eye on him, trying to see any cracks or breaks in his character. Anything that would tell her he was struggling.

However, the only thing she'd noticed so far was he was still having nightmares, but everyone had nightmares here. If anything, it would be more worrying if he wasn't having them. But she still couldn't shake the feeling he was teetering on the edge of a breakdown. She knew she would be, but the last thing she'd want was everyone treating her with kid gloves, so she tried to act like everything was back to normal.

In the grand scheme of things, the down time wasn't so bad. It allowed her to catch up on her research reports that Rodney had been hounding her about. But between keeping her eye on John and Rodney hounding her every second of the day, Alice felt more exhausted than she'd felt in months.

Tonight Rodney was on particularly bad form. Alice looked up at her watch and saw it read 01:30 she groaned out load. "That's it Rodney!" She blurted out. Rodney who had been standing in the middle of the lab giving them yet another tongue lashing about being too slow or incompetent. She couldn't even find the will to listen anymore. "I can barely think straight, it's not our fault that your equations don't work. And screaming at us and telling us how much smarter you are isn't going to change that fact." She took in a deep breath, Rodney was staring at her incredulously, his mouth hanging slightly a gasp. "Feel free to stay here and continue to beat yourself and everyone else up, but I'm going to bed so that I can actually regain some control of my thought processes." She slammed her laptop shut and dropped off her chair onto the ground. The other scientists in the room were staring between Rodney and her in a stunned silence.

Then someone clapped, she wasn't sure but she had a feeling it was Radek. Rodney rolled his eyes. "Alright. Alright fine. We'll pick this up in the morning." He turned around so his back was facing them. The one good thing about Rodney, even if you did bruise his ego it didn't take long for it to bounce back.

The room burst into life as all around her as people rushed to grab their things and run out of the room before he could change his mind. Alice started to follow them, clapping Rodney on the shoulder as she left. "You should sleep too." She murmured, noticing the dark circles drooping from his eyes. He mumbled back some retort, but Alice was already out the door. Right before she was about to turn down the hall that would lead her back to her room, her eyes lingered on the opposite one - the one that would take her to John's room. She knew by now even John would be asleep, Alice bit down on her bottom lip, debating whether she should just go back to her room. But she didn't feel like slipping into a cold bed, so she turned away from her room and headed for his.

She reached the door and entered her override code, silently slipping into the room. It was dark and quiet, she blinked a couple of times, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the darkness, then she tiptoed closer to John's bed. She could just make out the outline of John's sleeping body, he was laid on his side, facing away from her. Pulling her boots off, she placed her pants and jacket on the table beside the bed. Knowing that John hadn't been sleeping that well, she did her best not to disturb him as she slipping in beside him.

His body was warm against hers, sending a shiver up her spine. Closing her eyes and drinking in his smell, she wrapped her arm over John's waist drawing her fingers up his chest. His muscles rippled under her fingers as her cold finger tips brushed against his skin, she paused as they reached the healing scars left behind by the Wraith attack.

Before she even registered what was happening, John's body stiffened and vanished underneath her fingers. In the time it took for her to open her eyes, one of John's hand was on her throat and she was staring down the barrel of a gun. She tried to gasp but the pressure on her throat was too much, his hand had her airway almost completely closed off.

Her hands flew up to John's hand, trying to dig underneath his fingers to ease the pressure. But he was much stronger than her, and he'd caught her completely off guard. She choked as she tried to call out his name, her eyes bulging as she tried to find John's face in the darkness. But all she could focus on was the unmistakable glint of the gun hovering inches away from her face. Dark spots were starting to appear at the edge of her vision as her lungs burned from the lack of oxygen. Her fingers scratched and pried at John's, her legs struggled under his weight, but she couldn't get out of his grasp.

She tried to take in another breath, her throat gurgling, it wouldn't be long before she lost consciousness.

Then as suddenly as it happened, his hand disappeared and air flooded her airway. John's weight disappeared and Alice's hands flew up to clutch at her throat. Every breath she drew in was painful, causing her to cough and splutter, so she barely heard John. "R-Riles...?!" She heard the sound of the gun clinking against his side table.

Pulling herself up she brought her knees to her chest and dropped her head between them. Her breathing steadily becoming more regular. "What the hell!" was all she managed to croak out in between breaths.

"I don't...I thought." Alice knew what he was going to say. He thought she was the Wraith. "Did I hurt you?" His voice was raw and thick.

Alice slid her feet over the edge of the bed and stood up. Her fingers tenderly touching her neck, she could already tell this was going to leave a bruise. "I knew you weren't okay." She said, trying to ignore the pain when she spoke. "Since when do you sleep with a gun?" Every word caused a sharp stab of pain. John looked down at his hands, he didn't need to say, the answer was obvious.

"Riles..."

She turned away from him, gathering her jacket and slipping on her pants and boots. She headed for the door, but paused before stepping out. "No. You might be able to pretend you're okay with everyone else, but not with me." She rasped.

She stormed back to her room, but she knew there was no way she'd be able to sleep now. Throwing her clothes on the floor she walked over to take a quick shower. The warm water helped her muscles relax and made it easier for her to breath. Bracing herself against the wall of the shower she stood allowing the water to hit her back. She ran the moment with John over and over again in her head. He wasn't okay, not by a long shot. But she still had no idea what to do about it. If she went to Elizabeth or Heightmeyer they'd take him off active duty or worse send him back to Earth, and that was the last thing she wanted.

She stayed in the shower until the water started to turn cold. Grabbing her towel she stepped out of the shower, stopping as she passed by the mirror. Small blueish red marks were already starting to appear on her creamy tanned skin. Turning away, she walked into her room and quickly changed. She didn't have any tops that would cover her throat, so she settled for pulling the zip of her jacket all the way up to the base of her chin and leaving her hair out to cover her neck. Then she headed back out to the lab, she needed to busy her mind. She wasn't just angry at John, she was frustrated at herself. She'd known he wasn't okay, but hadn't been able muster the courage to talk to him about it.

The lab was deserted when Alice arrived, the lights reacting to her presence and slowly glowing to a dim brightness. Her mind was swimming with thoughts, guilt and worry. Should she really have left him alone after that… Biting down on her lip she tried to push all those thoughts to the back of her mind. She needed to focus on a tangible problem she could solve, despite having a larger team then they've ever had before, the RD team still had a backlog of jobs a mile long. Opening up her laptop Alice decided to work her way through as many as she could.

A cup being placed down in front of her jolted her awake. Alice blinked a few times and scanned her surroundings, she was still in the lab, but daylight was now streaming in through the windows. She hadn't even realised she'd fallen asleep. A dull ache spread over her body as she lifted her head, most likely from being hunched in such an unnatural position. She winced and looked up to see John standing next to her. "I thought you might need this." His eyes were focused on the coffee on table. She could see faint circles under his eyes and another coffee in his other hand, it looked like he hadn't been able to sleep either.

Alice stifled a yawn, she swallowed about to thank him when her throat clenched painfully. Her hand immediately clutched at it, it was slightly warm to the touch and felt swollen. She'd almost forgotten why she was sleeping in the lab in the first place. John's expression darkened. She reached out to take the cup, hoping her jacket and hair covered the worst of the bruising. "Thanks." She croaked. The smell of the coffee drifted up as she inhaled, warming her insides and relaxing her muscles.

He pulled back, and peered around the room. "I didn't come here just to give you that." He turned towards the other side of the lab, where Radek and Rodney were both heads down. It was the first time she'd noticed they were there. "Sorry to interrupt, kids." Alice slid off her chair and followed behind him, smoothing down her uniform as she walked. "But you need to pack your toothbrush, head back to Earth." He directed his gaze to Rodney.

Rodney's head slowly looked up. "I do? Why?"

John nodded, his lips pressed together. "Carter needs help."

Rodney smiled smugly. "With what?"

"Your sister."

Rodney's face fell as he looks at John in shock. Alice did a double take between the two. She'd completely forgotten Rodney had a sister. Rodney started grabbing his gear immediately. "Okay, we still need to run the simulations..."

"Yes. We know Rodney." Alice chided. "We've got it covered. You just focus on your sister." She put a lot of effort into making her voice sound normal, but it still came out slightly hoarse. Luckily Rodney was too preoccupied to notice.

Rodney nodded. "Okay." Then he scooted off towards the living quarters.

John watched him leave then turned back around to Radek and her. "So what do you know?"

Alice sighed, sipping her coffee and enjoying the feel of the warm liquid against her throat. "Not much. I think their estranged, I mean he never talks about her." The liquid made it easier for her to talk, her voice almost sounding normal.

John nodded thoughtfully. "Hmm. Fair enough." He put his hands on his hips. "Well since McKay is away our next mission is being post-poned. Gives you more time to focus on..." he gestured with his hand to the equations and equipment around them.

She narrowed her eyes. "Actually I was wondering if you'd be able to stick around a bit longer. I wanted to talk to you about-"

John's jaw clenched. "I've got to report into Elizabeth, y'know mission reports and security briefings..." he'd already started backing away to the door.

Alice's lips pulled together tightly, as his back disappeared from view. He was going to avoid the conversation as much as she wanted to. She rubbed the side of her face. "Back to work then."

————-

"John!" Alice tried not to wince as she yelled down the hall. John had just been talking to another marine, when Alice turned the corner. His body tensed as he heard her call out, she could tell he was trying to decide whether he could pretend he didn't hear her. She caught up to him as his shoulders sagged, obviously deciding there wasn't much he could do.

He reluctantly turned away from the marine towards her. "Hey Riles." He ran a hand along his neck.

Alice bit down on her lip, she knew he was purposefully keeping the marine within earshot so she couldn't talk openly. "I've been looking for you." She crossed her arms over her chest. Today she wore a black turtleneck top underneath her jacket, something she'd borrowed from one of the other scientists. Only the smallest tinge of a bruise could be seen over the collar. Luckily, the bruising had been light and some of it had already started to fade, though if anyone were to look closely there was still a faint impression of John's fingers.

His eyes darted around avoiding her own. "I was running training ops all night and I'm running late for a debriefing."

Alice pursed her lips, she was sure he was avoiding her, but there wasn't much she could say against that. The marine coughed awkwardly behind John. "Right, well drop by the lab when you have a moment. And i thought you'd be interested to know we got a transmission last night that Rodney's on his way back, with his sister."

John raised his eyebrows. "Really… that'll be interesting." The marine coughed again, this time it was a deliberate signal. John's eyes shifted to the side. "I've got to go."

Before she could even say goodbye he'd spun around and left down the hall with the marine. Alice let out a sigh, she needed to get him alone. Disappointed, she continued back to the lab.

* * *

It had been three days since she'd seen John in the hall. Every time she ran into him he seemed to be running from one meeting or briefing to another. She'd never seen him this busy. And he'd made up some excuse about running midnight training ops for the next few days with the marines in preparation for the new recruits that would be coming in on the Daedalus. All together she couldn't have spent more than five minutes with him since their last conversation in the hallway. It made her increasingly uncomfortable and made the knot in her stomach tighter. She tapped her fingers against the desk absent mindedly, thinking of ways to pin John down.

Radek mumbled something in Czech, making Alice glance up above her laptop. "Everything okay?" She asked hesitantly.

"Hmm" He looked up from his tablet, seemingly shocked to see her there. "Oh. Alice, I didn't know you were still here."

Alice looked over both her shoulders. "Where else would I be?"

Radek furrowed his brow in confusion. "Good point." Then he looked down at his tablet again.

"So what's going on?" She pressed.

"Oh, Rodney and his sister have sent over some designs they need to make to the containment chamber." He muttered.

"Really, is this something to do with the gate-bridge?" She stood up and walked over beside him, looking down at the diagrams on his screen.

"No, something else." Radek seemed fully absorbed in the designs.

"Well, why don't you take a team down to do this and I'll keep working on the gate bridge." She offered.

"Really?" His eyes brightened. "Are you sure?"

Alice nodded, squinting down at the diagrams. "Yeah, these equations are a bit above me. I don't know how much help I'd be."

Radek smiled. "Alright then." He stood up and walked over to another group of scientists, giving them orders to come with him.

Alice watched for a second, stretching her arms out. "Right, back to work." She muttered to herself, returning back to her simulations absently rubbing her throat, trying to ease the slight throb she felt.

By the time she left the lab the halls were deserted, she hardly met anyone as she headed back to her quarters. Her footsteps echoed around her, she rubbed her eyes and opened the door. To her surprise John was sat on the edge of her bed, waiting for her. He stood up as she walked in, his head bowed towards the floor. "I know I shouldn't be avoiding you, I just didn't know what to say."

Alice crossed her arms over her chest. "Yes you do."

He sighed raising his head up slightly to look at her. "I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt you."

Alice bit down on her lip and stepped over towards him, reaching out she wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed his cheek. "I know. But I can't just pretend that everything's fine." She moved her head back to look directly into his eyes. "You were tortured. They almost killed you. You can't just go on like it never happened. You're not fine John, and don't you dare try to tell me I'm wrong." His arms drew up and pulled her closer, his head dropping to bury itself against her neck. "You don't have to pretend around me." Her lips whispered against his ear.

He pressed closer, and allowed silence to engulf them for a few moments. "Okay." He said finally. His response surprised her, she'd thought he'd put up more resistance. "I never want to hurt you again." His fingers pushed her hair back, so he would be able to see the bruises on her neck.

She grabbed his hand, pulling it away. "Thank you." and she gently pressed her lips against his.

He held her close to him for a while. Then as he pulled away the mask seemed to fade. Suddenly, she noticed how tired and worn out he looked. A new look had replaced the usual gleam in his eyes, a dull haunted look. "I didn't think I was going to make it out of there." His voice was low, barely audible even though Alice was pressed against him. "At one point I wasn't sure if I wanted to."

Alice didn't know how to reply, it felt as though she was outside of her body. Despite the fact she knew exactly what point he was talking about though, remembering that even she had questioned at one point whether they were better off letting him die than rescuing him. But to hear the thought said out load seemed completely surreal. Did she say the same thought had crossed her mind? The silence seemed deafening in her ears as she wracked her brain on how to respond. So she decided to say the one thing she knew was 100% true. "We...I would have never given up on you." She gave him a small smile. "I made a promise remember."

A small glint of happiness shone in his eyes, as a smile tugged on the corners of his mouth. "I know."

"Maybe you should talk to Heightmeyer?" She offered gently.

"Maybe." He replied quickly.

They stayed still for a while, just holding each other. She hadn't felt this useless since she had been stood watching John through the video screen. Half the time she barely knew how to handle her own emotions. So she stayed quiet, her head placed against his chest. Not knowing whether she was helping or not.

In the silence a stray thought crossed her mind, one of those random ones that seemed to pop into being out of thin air, but burrowed them deep into your mind. That he deserved better than her. Someone who knew how to support him. Someone that knew how to love him. "Promise me no more guns in bed?" She said, wanting to break the silence.

A light rumble of laughter vibrated in his chest. He pulled his arms back, Alice lifted her head in confusion, but dropped her eyebrows as she saw hime flexing his biceps. "Are you sure about that?"

————-

Alice ran through the halls, Rodney and his sister were about to beam down. She skidded to a halt just before the steps up to the gate platform. John, Elizabeth and Radek were already standing waiting. All three of them turned to see her entrance. Alice glanced between them, and saw John shake his head slightly and groan. His face looked lighter, less defeated. Stepping up the stairs she took her place next to Radek, pressing her lips together to stop her from smiling. "Sorry." Before anyone could say anything else, a bright white beam made Alice squint then Rodney was standing there with a woman who looked exceptionally similar.

"Holy cow! That can't be good for you." Jeannie gasped.

"Nothing to worry about. I've done it dozens of times." John smiled warmly, stepping forward to offer out his hand to her. "John Sheppard."

"Yeah. She's married, and she's my sister." Rodney scoffed, narrowing his eyes at John.

"I'm just saying hi." John replied innocently.

"Yeah. No, I know exactly what you're doing. I've seen that look before ... Kirk." Rodney muttered.

John frowned at him. Alice stepped forward grinning. "Hi. It's a pleasure to meet you I'm Alice Riley, I handle these two." She jerked her head to John and Rodney.

Jeannie returned her smile, shaking her hand. "Seems like you've got your hands full."

"Hey-" Rodney whinged.

But he was cut off as Elizabeth smiled at Jeannie and reached out to shake her hand. "Hello, Mrs Miller. I'm Doctor Elizabeth Weir. Welcome to Atlantis."

"Thank you. Mer's told me so much about you."

"All good, I ..." John started, then paused. "Did you just call him "Mer"?"

"It's a pet name." Rodney said quickly. Both John and Alice exchanged a glance. "Where are we?" Rodney said to Radek, trying to deflect attention away from him.

"Simulations are all in the green. We're ready to try a power-up." Radek reported.

"Really? So soon? That's amazing. Excellent work, Radek." Jeannie smiled warmly.

"Thank you!" Radek said surprised.

Rodney rolled his eyes. "Yes, we try not to encourage him. He's got a bit of an ego."

Then he gestured for them to head down the hall. Elizabeth followed after them but John and Alice stayed put. John tilted back and forth on his feet. "Mer?" He whispered.

"You think there is something in his personnel file?" She whispered back. They both turned to look at each other, and in a heartbeat they both took off running towards John's office. She laughed as they ran, feeling the stress and weight of the last few days evaporating. She wasn't sure if John would go through with her suggestion and talk to Heightmeyer, but simply opening up to her seemed to have improved his mood greatly.

—————

Alice stood in front of Lloyd, they'd decided to do a early morning sparring session. Despite not being military anymore, there was no way she was going to let herself be outclassed by her former comrades. And now her throat had completely healed, and only the tiniest amount of bruising was still evident, she had to prove her skills hadn't decayed.

Alice moved first catching Lloyd off balance and smacking him hard down onto the floor. "Ah ha!" She yelled victoriously, over Lloyd's groaning body. "And you thought I'd gotten weak." She held out her hand to help him up.

Lloyd grabbed her, and pulled hard, throwing her over his head and down on the mat beside him. "I didn't say you were weak. I said you were out of practice." He laughed.

Alice groaned. "Cheap shot Lloyd." She rolled over and pushed herself up onto her knees.

"Sorry to say but I can't always let you win." Lloyd jumped up and wiped his forehead.

"Let me?" Alice scoffed. "Please."

"Lieutenant." Lloyd immediately went rigid.

"Colonel." He said politely, other than standing up straighter he didn't salute or move to stand at attention.

"The Major needs you, your team is moving out on a support mission." He jerked his head towards the door.

"Yes sir." Lloyd grabbed his bag from The edge of the mat. "Sorry Aly, we'll continue this later." And then he was gone.

"Well that's just great. Who am I supposed to spar with now?" Alice stood up and grabbed her water bottle.

"Sorry Riles. You'll just have to find someone else." John shrugged.

Alice smirked mischievously. "Well then since you're here." she dropped her bottle and stepped back on the mat with her hands on her hips.

John chuckled. "I don't think so."

"Why? You afraid I'll beat you." She stuck her tongue out. "Come on, when was the last time we sparred."

John dropped his head, then he started taking his jacket off. Alice smiled watching as he shed his knife and thigh holster. He took off his shoes and stepped up onto the mat. "Okay, but no holding back." He winked at her.

Alice let out a breathy laugh. "There's no way I'm gonna let you win." She raised her fists and bent her knees preparing herself waiting for John to make the first move. They'd spent a lot of time together and Alice had seen his fighting technique a lot over the past couple of years, so she felt like she knew what to expect. "Ready when you are, Sheppard." She mocked sticking her tongue out.

"Watch it Riley. Don't get cocky." He smirked and raised his own fists.

As she expected John struck out first. Trying to connect his palm to her ribs, she jumped backwards then whilst John was off balance she grabbed his wrist, spinning around so her back was against his chest and placed her palm on his shoulder. Then heaving with all her might she threw him down on the ground. "You were saying." She laughed bending over him.

"Lucky shot." Before she saw what he was doing John kicked out his leg hitting her in the back of the knees. Her legs buckled and she crashed back onto the mat and within a second John was on top of her pinning her shoulders and straddling her hips to keep her body down.

Alice huffed. She reached over and grabbed his wrist with her opposite arm, then used her other palm to strike his elbow. As his arm buckled and his hips rose off her she scooted back enough to dig her knee into the side of his thigh. Using it as leverage to reverse their positions. "How about we make this more interesting?" She bent down to whisper in John ear.

"Oh yeah." John groaned, clearly winded by her last hit. "How so?"

"If I win, you have to take me off the midnight control watch for a month, and I get to fly the next mission." She smirked, it was a simple bet.

John heaved himself up, throwing her back so she landed on her back in between her legs. He swung his legs under his body balancing on his hands and was inside her guard instantly. "And if I win?" He asked, flashing her his signature grin.

Alice bit her bottom lip. "I'll do all your paperwork and your security briefings for a month." Her voice was husky and low, she craned her neck to place a kiss on the side of his lips. "And anything else you want." She saw a mischievous glint in his eye. Alice used his distraction to her advantage and threw him off her. She scooted back and scrambled onto her feet. "So we have a deal?"

John stood up and stretched out his chest and arms. "Oh you're on Riley."

—————

Alice laughed as she rubbed her arm absent-mindedly, she was still sore from her and John's sparring session. Neither of them had taken it easy on the other. Despite the fact she lost, she couldn't wipe the smile off her face. After their spar John had been eager to cash in on the extra part of their little bet.

Now, together with John, Alice was sat in the mess hall with Teyla, Ronon and Jeannie. Alice didn't think she could laugh any harder when low and behold Rodney approached their table. "What is this?"

"Hey, Meredith!" John tried to stop laughing, with little success.

Rodney's shoulders dropped. "Oh, wonderful!"

Jeannie covered her smile with her hand. "John here was kind enough to show me around, offer me a warm meal, and introduce me to some of your friends."

"What have you told them?" Rodney glared at his sister.

John straightened out his face. "We weren't talking about you."

"Oh, you weren't?" Rodney said slightly hopeful.

Alice pursed her lips to stop herself from laughing. "Course not."

"Uh, no. We were discussing many things." Teyla looked around the group.

John shrugged his smile returning. "Now, when the issue of bedwetting happened to come up, she may have mentioned something about your childhood."

"That is not true!" Rodney snapped.

Ronon waved his palm at Rodney. "Relax. We all have embarrassing childhood stories."

"Of course we do." John agreed.

"There was one time the school bullies made me eat lunch with my underwear on my head." Ronon said. "Oh, wait, that was you." All of them broke at the same time, cracking up with laughter.

Rodney shuffled uncomfortably. "Oh, hardy har-har. And this is revenge for what, exactly?"

Jeannie shook her head. "You don't even know, do you?"

"Colonel Sheppard and Doctor McKay to the Isolation Room immediately." Everyone glanced around as Elizabeth's voice came over the tannoy.

"Isolation Room?" Alice turned to John who just shrugged.

Rodney gestured to John and Jeannie. "Come on."

Alice stayed sat down, until John turned back to look at her. "Well…?" He jerked his head.

"Oh!" Alice stood up, stuffing the last piece of apple into her mouth. "Sorry." Though she wasn't sure why she was being dragged along. But as soon as she got there she was glad she had been. Alice and John stood side by side, their faces almost pushed up against the glass of the observation room. On the other side stood Rodney, but he wasn't their Rodney. Apparently this one had appeared within the containment field of the experiment Rodney and Jeannie had been running.

They'd decided there was no one better than to deal with Rodney than Rodney. Alice leaned forward, her hands clasped in front of her covering her mouth as she watched Rodney and Jeannie enter the room.

The alt-Rodney stood up. "Wow. Now, I figured you'd be here, but, uh, but Jeannie? I always hoped we'd work together in Atlantis."

Jeannie glanced between the two Rodney's. "Huh. This is a first."

"For me too." The Rodney's said at the same time. Alice glanced up at John. This was getting too weird.

Alt-Rodney gestured to a couple of chairs next to him. "Have a seat." He turns to our Rodney. "Now, I presume you go by ..."

"Rodney." Alice's Rodney replied.

Alt-Rodney smiled and pointed to himself. "Ah. Rod." He waited until Rodney and Jeannie had sat down before he started talking again. "OK, I'm gonna make some assumptions based on what I've seen here and from readings we've taken in my own space time. Please stop me if I'm wrong. One: I presume you're running some sort of experiment that's designed to bridge between parallel universes. And two: it has something to do with power generation. Warm? Cold?" He flicked his palm side to side.

"Uh, hot." Jeannie laughed.

Rod smiled tensely. "Well, I'm sure the experiment's been a success on this side, but it's having some rather serious repercussions in my universe."

Jeannie smacked Rodney's arm. "I told you."

"Not now!" Rodney snapped.

Jeannie turned back to Rod. "Dangerous exotic particles that don't belong in either of our universes are being created on your side of the bridge."

Rodney threw her a dark look. Rod leans forward to him. "Oh, so you knew this could happen?"

"Uh, there was a slight risk, yes." Rodney admitted.

"This is weird." John muttered beside her.

"Shush." Alice hushed, trying to catch every word.

"Well, you're quite correct, Jeannie, and because these particles don't behave according to any of the laws of physics in our space time, they're creating a tear in the fabric of our universe." Rod explained

"Huh!" She faced Rodney. "First a solar system, now a universe."

"Yes." Rodney huffed impatiently. "How exactly did you get here?"

Alice listened as he explained. "Ah. Well, we detected the anomaly about twenty hours ago in space above the planet. We manoeuvered one of our Jumpers in close and tried to broadcast a signal to whoever was on the other side." She turned to John to give him an impressed look, though John's eyes seemed to have glazed over sightly.

"Yes, but of course we would be unable to detect that signal from within the containment chamber."

Rod nodded. "So Sheppard and I came up with a plan to beam a person into the anomaly. They would be protected by an Ancient personal forcefield that we discovered."

"Still, it was an incredible risk." Jeannie leaned forward toward Rod.

Rod laughed. "Well, it was Sheppard's idea."

Alice glanced over to see John smiling smugly down at her. "Glad to know some things are the same across universes."

Alice just rolled her eyes. "Yeah you're both annoying smart asses, big surprise." But John still had a smug smile on his face.

"We decided it might allow one of us to cross the bridge you'd created and bring the problem to your attention. There was very little time, and, well, there seemed to be no other way. We drew straws." Rod put his arm across the back of the chair.

"You lost." Rodney said.

"I won!" Rod laughed "What, the prospect of saving an entire universe? No-brainer."

"Oh, sure." Rodney laughed unconvinced.

Alice laughed. "Can you imagine our Rodney volunteering for a one-way mission?"

John shook his head. "Not unless he had some ulterior motive."

"Maybe getting away from you was enough." She joked.

————

Alice stood outside Rod's door and knocked loudly. "Coming!" A voice inside yelled. Rolling back and forth on her heels, she popped her lips as she waited.

A few seconds later Rod appeared, smiling out at her. Though his smile dropped when he saw her. "Aly? Oh my god." He ran forward throwing his arms around her.

Alice laughed uncomfortably. "Uh hi Rod." Her arms were held limply out to the side. She wasn't sure if she should return the hug or what. Rod pulled back keeping his hands on her shoulders and looked her up and down. Alice gave him an awkward smile. "Is everything okay?"

Rod grinned. "Fine, it's just been a while" he rubbed her arm up and down. "It's just so good to see you."

"Yeah..." Alice tried to force a smile, unsure if she wanted to ask him what had happened. "Um... I just uh. I came by cause I thought you might want some company."

Rod released her. "I'd love to, but I'm meeting Sheppard for some golf."

"Ah!" Alice jerked her head to the side. "How about I walk you there?"

Rod offered out his arm to her. "That would be perfect."

Alice looped in her arm to his and together they headed towards the east pier. "So, what's John like in your universe?" The words were out of her mouth before she could think about them, since they'd first found out he was from an alternative reality she'd been dying to find out more. She'd read the SG-1 mission reports reciting the multiple occasions they'd encountered their alternate duplicates, with small but albeit significant differences.

"John?" Rod raised his eyebrows. Then he did another glance up and down her body. "You're not in the military here! How did I not notice." He said it as a statement not a question.

Alice smiled. "I was, but I recently became a civilian scientist on the expedition. And John and I are..." she let her voice trail off, no matter how long they'd been together Alice still found it difficult to call him her boyfriend. It just sounded too juvenile.

Rod grinned from ear to ear. "That's incredible. In my universe we always thought you two couldn't stand each other. You were always at each other's throats about one thing or another. And let me tell you he always loved to remind you how he outranked you, not that it stopped you from doing things your own way." He reminisced almost joyfully.

Alice frowned. "You talk like your me died or something."

He gave her a funny look, like he was bursting to tell her something. "Well you moved back to Earth a while ago." He pursed his lips pausing, letting his words hang in the air.

Alice swallowed. "Permanently!? Why would I - I mean she - do that?" She pressed impatiently.

Rod's lips twisted up into a big grin. "You left to go on maternity leave." Alice stopped mid-step. Her body frozen. Rod continued forward turning back when his arm caught on her stationary one. "Aly?"

"What did you just say?" She asked.

"Maternity leave. Sheppard knocked you up." He laughed.

Alice's head was swimming, she'd never considered children before, not that she necessarily didn't want them but she'd always thought she'd think about it when she was older. Now the reality seemed to be staring her in the face. "With John?!" The notion made panic rise in her chest. She wasn't ready for something like this, how could she be when she couldn't even call him her boyfriend. Alice shook her head, it was ridiculous, she was being ridiculous. Rod's Alice was completely different to her.

"Aly, you okay? you've gone pale."

Alice took in a shaky breath. "What? Oh…fine." She started walking again.

"You seemed as shocked as I was when we found out. Though not as surprised as Sheppard. You see our John isn't exactly the family type. You guys got into a big fight and you left to have the baby back on Earth. He loves you...well her. We think. It's still all a bit hard to tell. I think it all just took him by surprise. All of us really." Rod rambled, but Alice felt like she was only half listening her mind still stuck on the fact in one other universe her and John were having a baby.

"Yeah I'm sure." she mumbled, not exactly sure what she was replying to. "Well here we are…" She let go of Rod's arm, and gestured to the door up ahead.

"You don't want to join us?" Rod smiled warmly at her.

"Uh. Golf - y'know -" she stumbled over her words. "it's not really my game." In reality she just wasn't sure she could handle seeing John after hearing that. "I'll catch up with you for lunch." Then she spun on her heels and wandered off into the city. Her hand absent-mindedly went to her stomach. Pregnant… With John's baby.

* * *

"Riles…Riles? Hey"

Alice blinked as a finger clicked in front of her face, tearing her out of her thoughts. "Sorry what?" All around the table her friends were staring at her.

John pulled his hand back, his brow furrowing in concern. "You okay?"

"Sure, just spaced out i guess." She dragged her hand through her hair, pushing it behind her ears.

"You've been pretty distracted the last couple of days. Are you sure everything's alright?" John was eyeing her up.

"Yeah it's nothing." She dropped her face to the plate in front of her, hoping John wouldn't be able to read her expression. She took a quick bite of her food.

Everyone waited a moment, before Rod broke the tension. "So is your Rodney involved with the Athosians much?"

They'd been trying to trace back the small differences in Rod and Rodney's lives. Thankfully Jeannie'd had the most questions and they'd revolved around Rodney's childhood and time before the expedition. But now it seemed it was turning onto the expedition. Alice wasn't sure if she was comfortable everyone knowing about her and John on the other side - especially given her…condition. In truth, she had been distracted a lot, she had barely done any work the last two days causing her to fall behind in her reports and she almost fried the city's power couplings doing routine maintenance. She couldn't get what Rod had said out of her head.

Rationally, she knew these people were fundamentally different to her and the rest of the team. But she couldn't help but think about how some similarities had crossed universes. The fact that all of them had still ended up in Atlantis, the battle against the Wraith and the fact her and John were together. So they couldn't be all that different, which made her wonder how her counterpart in Rod's universe felt about her…condition. Was she happy? Excited? was it something she wanted… or did she dread it and was filled with as much fear as Alice - and she was only imagining the situation.

If she was being honest with herself, it was making her re-think her choices and her current situation with John. Right now, she was sure she didn't want a baby - far from it. But what about John. Her eyes drifted over to him, he was sitting beside her intently listening and laughing to something Rod had just said. After everything they'd been through recently, with John and Kolya the idea of babies and relationships just seemed absurd. Not too long ago she'd been worried about John's mental state, and now she was starting to question her own.

But no matter how she tried to rational it to herself, questions started bubbling in her head. Did he want children? What were his expectations of their relationship? They hadn't spoken about - at least not seriously. And he'd been married before, did he want to get married again?

"What the hell is this?" Rodney's high pitched broke through Alice's stupor.

"Hey, sleepyhead!" John joked, putting his arm around Alice's chair to lean back to look at Rodney.

"Yeah. Hi." he muttered grumpily.

"I had a breakfast date with Jeannie. I guess it kind of ballooned into a group affair. Look, sit down. We're tracing back our lives, trying to find the little differences between our pasts." Rod said, still chuckling.

"Rod is an honorary member of the Athosian Council." Teyla remarked.

"And is godfather to his niece and nephews." Jeannie added.

Rodney pulled a face. "Yes, well, how wonderful for him."

"Well, it's easier for me. Our Earth has a ZedP.M. too, so it makes the back and forth a lot simpler." Rod explained.

"Doctors McKay, please report to the containment chamber. Doctors McKay." Everyone looked up as Radek's voice sounded over the tannoy.

Both Rod and Rodney moved simultaneously. "Excuse me." Jeannie got up to and hurried to follow them out of the hall.

"I need to get back to the lab as well." Alice stood up picking up her tray, her food barely touched.

John glanced up at her. "Alright, but dinner tonight?"

Alice just nodded, saying a swift goodbye to the others and heading off. Her head still swimming with thoughts.

Right on time John knocked on her door. She grabbed her earpiece that she'd taken off to clear her mind and opened the door. John had his hands stuffed casually in his pockets. "You ready?"

Alice forced a small smile on her face. "Yeah, lets go."

Together they walked towards the mess, a small gap between them. "Y'know someone needs to make a routine run around of one of the Jumper's, apparently it needs a few extra miles on its tank. I was thinking we could...go for a ride?" He bit down on his lip and gazed over to her. Though her face must have shown her hesitance. "What's going on Riles?"

She drew in a breath, she'd been debating whether or not to bring up her fears with John. But it never seemed like the right time, and she also wasn't sure she was ready to hear his answers. "Nothing, I'm just tired. A Jumper ride sounds great, when do you wanna go?"

John narrowed his eyes, clearly not buying her excuse. But he didn't press. "Maybe tomorrow?"

"Sounds good, I'll bring the picnic?" She offered him a sweet smile, hoping to placate his concern a little. "How's it been going with Heightmeyer? Are you still having nightmares?" She asked even though she knew the answer was yes.

John nodded, his eyes drifting back to the hall infront of them. "Good. And yeah, but they're not as bad as before." He said reluctantly, it was still difficult for him to open up to her. Not that she could blame him. Bottling things up just seemed to be in both their natures.

"Good." She said, knowing that was the end of the discussion. "so...what do you think of Rod? And I mean really?"

John shrugged, though it was obvious he was happy the conversation had turned away from him. "It's a bit weird, he smiles too much. I don't think I've ever seen our Rodney that friendly."

Alice let out a breathy laugh. "I know what you mean. He's also so chatty, I feel like no one else can get a word in - but I guess they're not so different in that respect."

"No. Not at all."

"Rodney doesn't seem too happy to have him around."

John waved his hand through the air. "He's just worried Jeannie likes Rod more than him."

Alice's eyes went wide. "He told you that?"

John glanced over to her. "Yeah, though don't mention it to anyone else, okay?"

Alice nodded, it was rare for Rodney to really admit his true emotions, other than fear or arrogance. "Maybe you should tell her. I know you don't want to get involved, but it could really help." John's jaw tensed. He wasn't good with emotions either, his own or other people's.

He smiled softly. "I'll think about it. Now you grab a table and I'll get you some jello."

Alice nodded obediently, picking a table away from the main crowd on the balcony. The sun had set, but warm pink and orange colors still streaked across the sky. The air blew gently against her face, once again she debated telling John her fears, blurting out all the questions that had been bothering her for days. But she knew she couldn't. Voicing them out loud would change everything, just like opening Shrodingers' box. Right now they were in a rare state of bliss, and she didn't want to ruin it.

—————

She'd been disappointed not to say goodbye to Rod, but she was happy he'd been able to get back home to his people. Despite the fact they now had zero ZPMs left to power the city.

Elizabeth had decided to reactivate John to active duty, but since both Rodney and Alice were spending their entire days trying to covert any and every system they could over to naquadah generators, they weren't exactly barrelling off to invade a Wraith outpost.


	30. The Return: Part 1

**A/N Merry Christmas!**

 **I've known for a long time what I wanted to do with this chapter but getting the words and feeling right took a lot longer than I ever expected. But it's finally in a place where I'm happy to share it.**

 **The Return is one of my favourite episodes of the entire series and I think there was a lot more that could be done with it. Normally I try to stay as close to the originally script as possible, but there will be quite a few changes in the next couple of chapters - namely to the timeline as 6 weeks felt like too short a time for everyone to return.**

 **Thank you to TheShadowsNightmare, Adela and Lynn**

Alice sat beside John in the Jumper's co-pilot seat, her laptop perched between the dash and her lap. "Do you think Rodney's finished giving his lecture?" John joked, as he prepped the Jumper's controls.

"Are you kidding, it's like a 10 minute speech. We've been hearing it non-stop down in the lab. What's the bet the test is delayed cause of him?" She smirked at him.

"Nah, Caldwell will keep him on schedule."

Alice let out a breathy laugh imagining the no nonsense Colonel managing Rodney's ego and went back to typing on her laptop. "Alright, the forwarding macro has been uploaded. We're ready to go."

"Let's go!" John powered up the jumper and typed in the address. Slowly he lowered them into the gateroom and opened a channel to the control room. "Gate is dialled. Forwarding macro has been uploaded."

"Alright, John. You have a go." Elizabeth's voice came through crystal clear.

John flashed a grin over at Alice. "Alright, then. Here goes."

This was the first test flight for the new Midway bridge that Rodney and Alice had been working on non-stop over the last nine months. She should have known the minute Elizabeth mentioned the words test pilot who would volunteer for the mission. John looked ready to jump with joy when Elizabeth asked if he'd be willing to fly the mission.

The Jumper moved through the event horizon, when they reached the other side their windscreen was filled with dark black sky. It was incredible, the Jumpers were more short range ships, so they'd never taken one this deep into space before. And the view from the Jumper's cockpit was totally different to the one she was used to on the Daedalus. The window was tilted at such an angle she almost felt like she was just floating in the void.

"Colonel Sheppard, right on time. What's your status?" Caldwell's voice came through the speakers, bringing Alice back to the job at hand.

John patted himself down quickly. "Felt a little weird, but everything seems to be in one piece." He winked at Alice, smirking she rolled her eyes at his antics. "Ready to proceed to next phase. Uploading macro and initiating dialling sequence."

Alice tapped a few keys and gave him a thumbs up. He started to punch the symbols on the Jumper's D.H.D. Ahead of them, the Milky Way Gate activated. Slowly they moved towards the event horizon, stopping a few meters shy to await clearance. "Tonight, I want to take you to my favourite restaurant." John said, not taking his eyes of the gate ahead of them.

Things had been a bit awkward between them ever since Rod's visit, other than missions they barely seemed to spend any time alone together now.

Every day for the past two weeks it seemed like one or both of them was always working late or simply too busy. She looked at the cheeky grin spread on his face, she wasn't sure if John had noticed her pulling away, but she couldn't deny how strong her feelings for this man were. "So long as it's not the base's mess hall." Alice laughed, telling herself to just relax, as always she was overthinking the entire situation.

John gave her a lopsided grin, something she'd felt like she hadn't seen in a while. "Daedalus, ready to proceed."

They waited looking around them for Caldwell's go ahead. "Colonel Sheppard, you have a go." John took in a deep breath and flew the Jumper forward.

Alice felt the familiar rush of travelling through the gate, and in what felt like half a second they were inches short of the control room's window.

Standing behind the glass Alice recognised General O'Neill and Landry. O'Neill leaned forward into the small microphone. "It's about time!"

John chuckled. "Sorry, sir."

O'Neill stepped aside to let Landry hover over the mic. "Colonel Sheppard. Doctor Riley. Welcome to Earth."

"Thank you, sir."

Alice grinned. "Good to be back sir."

"You know where to park. We'll debrief and go over the flight data as soon as you're ready."

"Yes, sir." John let the Jumper travel up the silo above them and into the newly created hanger bay.

Alice grabbed two external hard drives from her bag and downloaded the data from the test onto them. Then she closed her laptop and packed it into her bag. John was already up and grabbing his gear from the back. "You ready?" He poked his head back into the cockpit.

"Yep. All set." She slung her backpack on her shoulders and walked into the back. As she past him she stopped to press a quick kiss against his lips, and placed one of the hard drives into his hand. "Pick me up in an hour?"

His lips turned up into a small smile. "Wouldn't miss it."

He leaned back and opened the cargo door and together they both went their separate ways, John to debrief with the Generals and Alice headed for Samantha Carter's lab. "Afternoon." She said cheerfully as she walked into the lab, her mind still lingering on John's kiss.

As usual Sam was hunched over her laptop. When she looked up at Alice entering her lab, her eyes went wide and she looked down at her watch. "Oh god, I missed the test!"

Alice laughed. "Don't worry. Went off without a hitch." She pulled the harddrive from her bag. "I've got the back ups of the Jumper data here for you. But from what I could tell everything seemed to go just as we expected. Everything within the predicted limits."Sam took the drive off Alice and plugged it into her laptop immediately. Together they examined the data, trying to find anything that didn't fit within their expected tolerances.

After what only felt like a few minutes later, John knocked on the edge of the doorway. "Sorry ladies, am I interrupting?"

Sam and Alice looked up from their screens. "Not at all." They said at the same time. Alice looked down at her watch and couldn't believe over an hour had past since their arrival.

"Riles, if you want to grab food we need to go now." He clasped his hands behind his back, looking slightly uncomfortable under Sam's gaze.

Alice powered down and scooted out of her chair. "It was good to see you Sam." She leaned across and gave her a quick hug.

"You too." She gave her a small squeeze then looked over to John with an amused expression. "Colonel."

John dipped his head respectfully. "Colonel." Then together John and Alice raced off down the corridors to the elevator.

The doors closed behind them. Alice leant back against one of the side walls. "Any hints?"

John crossed his arms and casually leaned a shoulder against the opposite wall. "Have you missed pasta?"

—

Alice sat across from John at a small boutique Italian restaurant not far from the base. They looked completely out of place next to all the other couples around them. Most were dressed in nice semi-formal wear, the men in smart shirts and tailored pants, and the women in lacy blouses or pretty dresses. Alice pulled uncomfortably at the hem of her SG team black t-shirt. Biting down on her lower lip, she glanced over at John who although was still dressed in his standard BDUs, somehow annoyingly pulled it off. The number of women whose eyes had latched onto his muscular figure as they'd stepped into the restaurant had almost made her laugh.

Alice took in a deep breath, shuffling in her seat and tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. She felt completely out of place. Her eyes darted up to John, he was leaning back against his chair speaking with the host who'd shown them to their table. He seemed to know John.

They were speaking in a low whisper so Alice couldn't make out what they were saying. The host nodded and turned back to head to his place at the front entrance. John twisted back in his chair to face her, a lazy lopsided grin on his face. "I've never even heard of this place." Alice looked around at the quaint decorations surrounding them. John smiled and reached across the table grabbing her hand.

"It's a well kept secret." He gave her hand a small squeeze, rubbing his thumb over the back of her hand. "Besides, how often do we get to do something as normal as go out for dinner." He joked.

Alice shook her head, letting out a small lofty laugh. "Not exactly many dining options are there."

"Unless you feel like trying some of the more..." he lent in closer across the table. "unique…cuisine, we've come across." He laughed, straightening back up.

Alice scrunched up her face as she thought about some of the food they'd been forced to eat in the name of diplomacy. "I'd rather not. Italian is as foreign as I can handle right now."

John let out a lofty laugh. "It was actually General O'Neill who recommended it to me originally. Apparently he came here all the time when he was on SG-1. I decided to try it out last time I was here."

Alice snorted. "I remember those days. If Elizabeth thinks she has a handful with our team, she didn't spend enough time with O'Neill's team. We were always being sent after them." She smiled softly at the memory. "There's actually a local bar just down the road we all used to go to. I think they banned all airforce personnel now." She let out a small laugh.

John raised an eyebrow. "Do you miss it here?" He asked his eyes roaming over her expression, but paused and let go of her hand as the waiter came to put their food on the table.

Alice picked up her fork and started playing with her pasta. "Honestly... I don't think so." She looked around the bistro. "I mean it's home, but we're really needed back there." She tried not to say Atlantis. It wouldn't be good if some nosy diner at the next table overheard them talking about the lost city. John nodded thoughtfully. "What about you? Do you miss your family?"

"I'm better off where we are." John's face tensed. "Y'know someone told me Lorne is seeing someone on base."

Alice knew he was trying to change the topic, he never spoke about his family. Even to her. All she knew was his father and brother still lived in Washington DC, but they'd had some big falling out. She narrowed her eyes, but let it go this time. "Really? Who? and he hasn't said anything."

"I overheard some of the juniors whispering about it. Though who knows if it's true." John shrugged.

"Oh my god! Yes. Of course." A high pitch lady screeched from the other side of the restaurant.

Alice and John both turned to the side to see what had caused the outburst. Two tables down from them a man was down on one knee, a small box in his hand and a pretty brunette woman crying as she pressed a kiss against his lips.

Alice felt her whole body tense. The rest of the restaurant started clapping and saying their congratulations to the couple who were beaming smiles back at them as the man slipped the ring on the woman's finger.

She felt her face pale as her mind suddenly flooded with images of her alternate self - pregnant with John's baby. She'd managed to push it to the back of her mind, focusing on other things and enjoying her time with John. But now the fear and anxiety that she had felt before returned. A tightness spread over her chest, so much so her breathing became slightly laboured. "Riles, are you okay?" John asked, his eyes widening as her breathing increased.

But she couldn't hear him over the blood pounding in her ears. Her hands and legs started trembling as it felt like her heart was about to break through her ribs. She struggled to draw in a breath, as her airway started tightening closing up. The room suddenly seemed claustrophobic, trapping her in this state. In a panic, she pushed back her chair, and ran for the front door.

The fresh cool air hit her hard, stumbling she placed her back against the wall of the restaurant. Doubling over her hand clutched her chest, trying to distract herself from the pain. "Riles!" John's voice sounded next to her, she hadn't even heard him follow her.

She couldn't speak. She couldn't focus on anything other than the pain and her own breathing. John placed his arms around her, whispering calming words into her ear. The pain started to dull, her breathing slowly returning to normal. Slowly, she loosened her grip on her chest.

"I'll get us a cab." He kissed her head and walked back inside.

They took a cab back to the bases main gate. She'd managed to convince John she didn't need to be checked over - she'd tried to pass it off as a side effect of not sleeping well. She knew he wasn't buying it, but he'd prefer to get back to Atlantis sooner rather than later. Though she doubted that would be the last she heard of it.

Before she knew it they were back in the cockpit of the Jumper and she was uploading the new macros to send them home.

She cleared her throat. "Ready on your mark." She hit a key and looked up to give Sam a quick wave goodbye through the windscreen.

"Control, we are go for launch." John smirked and craned his head towards her. "I've always wanted to say that."

Alice offered him a half-hearted smile and prepared herself to head through the gate. The SGC gateroom vanished and in front of them was empty space.

As expected, the only ship on their display was the Daedalus. "Colonel Sheppard, welcome back to the middle of nowhere."

Alice tapped her keyboard. Downloading the latest data and inputting the next macro. John levelled their position and moved towards the Pegasus gate. "Thank you, Colonel. I've got a take-out pizza for everyone back at Atlantis. With your permission, I'd like to upload the macro and dial out before it gets cold."

"Negative. We're putting that leg of the trip on hold for now. Seems like we're expecting company."

Alice and John exchanged a confused glance. "Company, sir?" Alice hit a control to bring up their long range scanners, but nothing showed up.

"Come aboard and we'll explain. Port bay shields are down."

John raised an eyebrow. "Well, this is different."

John landed the Jumper on the floor of the Daedalus' X-302 bay. "Don't think we're not going to talk about what happened back there." He said as he stood up from his seat left. Alice pursed her lips and just nodded, keeping her head low as they headed for the briefing room.

Caldwell and several members of the crew were waiting there already.

Rodney was standing at the front of the room, putting on his best teacher voice. "Believe it or not, moving that fast, while an incredible feat of technology, isn't very useful - certainly in comparison to travel through hyperspace. Now, moving as fast as it is, this ship - assuming it is a ship - would still take at least a million years just to reach the Milky Way."

Caldwell was sat just in front of Rodney. "That close to the speed of light, don't you have to take relativity into account?"

Rodney smiled. "Exactly. The people on board - assuming that they are people - would only experience maybe twelve years, so a few stasis chambers and you're laughing ... I mean, they're not laughing, they're unconscious - but, uh, you know, metaphorically."

John crossed his arms. "So - assuming it's a ship and assuming they're people ..."

"... what do we do about them?" Alice finished. Both her and John were stood at the back of the room.

Rodney craned his neck to look back at them. "Well, we try and make contact, obviously."

Caldwell lent back in his chair. "How do you propose we do that?"

"Pull up, honk the horn, try to get 'em to roll down the window." John quipped.

Caldwell didn't seem impressed with John's attempt at humour. "I'm talking about attempting to match their speed. This ship is not designed to do that."

Alice shook her head. "We can't. I mean, even if we succeeded, we'd be subjected to the same time dilation effects. We'd be out of contact with Earth and Atlantis for, well, years."

John turned towards her. "Can't we overtake 'em with our hyperdrive?"

"Yes" Rodney looked miffed Alice had taken the spotlight off him. "but they would blow right past us as soon as we dropped back into normal space because our sublight engines are incapable of accelerating to anywhere near the speed of light."

John shrugged. "So we max out the sublight engines, get as close as we can get."

Rodney blinked. "Hmm. Yes. I mean, that might work. We should at least be able to stay in range long enough to get some sensor readings, yeah."

Caldwell stood up. "Do it." The military personnel stood at attention and moved to let him past. John didn't move. "I'll let Atlantis know you're gonna be late."

As Caldwell left, the rest of the crew started filing out the door. Rodney pushed his way through to stand next to John and Alice. "Um, did you really get pizza for everyone? Because it would be a shame for that to go to waste if we're gonna, um ..."John gave him a blank stare. Trust Rodney to always think with his stomach. "...Yeah, OK, so solve this first and then ..." he then hurried away from John's stare.

"I should probably go help him." Alice started to follow Rodney, but John reached out grabbing her arm.

"Not so fast, don't think I've forgotten about what happened at dinner." Alice tried to drop her face to the floor, but John tilted his head raising an eyebrow. "I want you to go get checked out."

Alice shook her head. "It was nothing, just-"

His face hardened. "I know a panic attack when I see one. Don't make me make it an order."

Alice thought about trying to argue more, but John's expression told her this wouldn't be one she'd win. "Alright, I'll head to the infirmary." She agreed reluctantly.

—

Alice sat at one of the forward monitoring stations on the bridge, once she'd had her check up in the Infirmary - confirming what she'd expected, she'd experienced a mild anxiety attack - she'd worked with Rodney to maximise the power output of the sublight engines. Thankfully, they'd been too busy for John to question her anymore, quietly she hoped that with all the fuss going on it would slip his mind. Though it wasn't likely.

Adjusting a few last minute corrections she turned back to see John standing up next to Caldwell, with Rodney beside him. "We're ready."

"Sir, we've got just about everything we're gonna get out of the sublight engines." Klienman reported, the ship's pilot.

Alice could see the object approaching them. "Okay. They're gonna fly by us in three, two, one." She shifted to the right so she could look out the main window. A large blur appeared in the distance and in a second was already past them. Alice squinted but she couldn't tell what the object was.

"Interesting." She twisted around to see Rodney looking down at his tablet.

"What?" Caldwell looked annoyed to have to ask.

"If these readings are correct - and to be perfectly fair, they may not be ..." he rambled.

"Rodney." John warned

Rodney looked up. "It's an Ancient warship. It's possibly Aurora class."

"Who's flying it?"

"I ... would imagine Ancients."

Caldwell looked st him sceptically. "But there hasn't been any of them around for over ten thousand years."

Rodney sighed. "Relativity?! Look, remember, for them only a handful of years have passed."

Alice stood up and walked over to join them. "Don't Aurora class ships have hyperdrives?"

Rodney scrunched up his face. "Well, maybe their hyperdrive was damaged in a battle with the Wraith. It happened to us all the time. Maybe it conked out on the way and they were forced to continue at as close to light speed as possible. That would explain how they got a million light years away from Pegasus without having to leave a million years ago."

Caldwell held up his hand. "You know the subspace drive specs better than I do, Doctor, but I'm not sure an Aurora class ship has the power to do what you're suggesting."

"Maybe they have a ZPM." Alice offered.

John perked up, pointing his finger at Alice. "That would be worth finding out."

Rodney started typing quickly on his tablet. "OK, we need to send them a message before they get out of range and we have to jump ahead. Uh, something like, you know, We are humans from Earth currently occupying Atlantis, uh, yada, yada, yada ..."

"Why don't we just ask 'em to slow down?" John said.

"Colonel Caldwell. The unidentified vessel is slowing down." Klienman's console started beeping.

John smirked. "Maybe they heard me."

Alice peered over Klienman's shoulder. "No, they saw us. They're not just slowing down - they're slamming on the brakes something like twenty-seven gees."

"So now what?" Caldwell looked expectantly at Rodney and Alice.

Alice opened her mouth but a bright flash took their attention away. Standing in front of them was a hologram of a blonde woman. "Unknown vessel, I'm Captain Helia of the Lantean warship Tria. Our ship has suffered damage. We've scanned your vessel and determined that it is capable of hyperspace travel. We've begun deceleration manoeuvres. Will you render assistance in the form of hyperspace transport?"

"Well, yes! Yes, of course we will." Rodney said eagerly.

The hologram of Helia didn't turn to him or respond in any way.

"I don't think she can hear you." John stepped forward and waved his hand in front of her face. Again nothing happened.

"Open a channel." Caldwell ordered. "This is Colonel Steven Caldwell of the Earth ship Daedalus. It would be an honour to render assistance in any way we possibly can."

Helia smiled, then her hologram disappeared.

Rodney grinned. "We're gonna meet Ancients! I mean, flesh and blood Ancients who know what everything is and how everything works! I mean, I don't even know what to ask first!"

Caldwell slouched into his chair. "Well, it's gonna be a couple of hours before we can match velocities for transport."

"That should give you enough time to write out that list!" John was clearing joking, but Rodney's eyes lit up.

"Right, right!" He hurried off towards the engine room.

Alice crossed her arms and looked down at Klienman's screen again. "What's wrong?" John came to stand beside her, following her gaze.

"Nothing." She chewed her lip. "I guess just remembering the last time we thought we were going to meet Ancients." Her gut started churning, as flashbacks of Niam and Oberoth filled her mind.

"We'll check them thoroughly for nanites, don't worry" he reached out and rubbed her arm discretely.

She nodded, wishing she could be comforted. But something gnawed at the back of her mind, something not quite right. Her eyes glanced around realising that they were standing alone now that everyone had gone back to work. She felt her muscles tense. "Yeah, well I should go check on the engines, they're still a bit touchy after the battle with the Wraith." She didn't wait to see John's reaction moving as quickly as she could make look normal out of the bridge.

—

The journey back had been interesting, since the Tria didn't have a working hyperdrive, they'd offered to transport the crew onboard the Daedalus. Though it had sounded more like am order in Alice's eyes.

She'd read the mission reports from SG-1 and even spoken to Daniel Jackson about his time with the Ancients. Every report described them similarly; an exceptional race of humans much further down the evolutionary path than the current occupants of Earth, but with a certain arrogance and sense of moral authority that always caused trouble for the SGC.

Unsurprisingly, despite Alice and the Daedalus' crews attempts at general conversation and hospitality, the Ancients kept to themselves with most dialog being conveyed by their ships' Captain, Helia. Who in Alice's opinion could do with a bit of a reality check, though she expressed her gratitude at them assisting them in returning to Atlantis, there was something underlying that Alice couldn't quite place her finger on.

The week long journey back to Atlantis hadn't been as exciting as she would have thought. Alice spent most of her time with Rodney in the labs going through the Gate-bridge data she'd collected. Thankful to have something to busy her mind. And John was acting as guide and mediator between the Ancients and the crew - something she was sure he absolutely despised. Diplomacy wasn't exactly his forte.

Finally though they were back. Alice stood on the bridge and saw Lantea coming into view. "I don't think I'll ever get sick of seeing that." She murmured to Rodney.

"Mhmm" He muttered, his head down in his datapad.

Alice rolled her eyes. "Alright Rodney, time to get ready. Thanks for the ride Colonel." She dipped her head politely at Caldwell as they headed out of the room preparing to beam down. John, Helia and a few other Ancients were waiting for them at the transport site. Alice gave her best diplomatic smile. "Captain. John."

John smiled back and tapped his earpiece. "Ready to beam."

Alice felt the familiar sensation of the Asgard beaming technology, and in the next heartbeat she was back standing in the middle of the gateroom. Ronon, Teyla and Elizabeth had gathered around ready to greet them.

"Doctor Weir, Ronon, Teyla - this is Helia, captain of the Ancient ship Tria." John introduced them politely. He probably couldn't wait to hand them over to Elizabeth and be done with it.

Elizabeth could barely contain her excitement. "It's an honour to meet you."

Helia smiled at her. "Thank you. And from what I'm told, you've done a remarkable job preserving our city."

Alice felt her skin prickle as Helia stressed our city.

Elizabeth looked around at the gateroom. "We did what we could with what we had."

The smile disappeared from Helia's face, her mouth pressing into a tight line. "I need to speak to the leader of your people."

Alice shot John a look, but he seemed just as surprised. Elizabeth shuffled uncomfortably. "I'm in charge of the Atlantis expedition."

"You misunderstand me, Doctor Weir. I need to talk to the one who can speak for all the people of Earth."

"That can certainly be arranged, but may I ask why?"

Helia smiled, and a console rose up from the floor between her and Elizabeth. Instantly, Alice flinched away. Her hand reaching for the gun that would normally be secured on her thigh holster, but her fingers brushed empty material. Beside her Ronon had snatched out his blaster aiming it at Helia.

"What is that? How come I've never seen that?" Rodney spluttered.

Ignoring the guns raised at her, Helia walked to the console and put her hand on it. Alice flicked her eyes back and forth watching as screens all across the room started shutting down.

Elizabeth looked startled. "Excuse me, what's going on?"

"Thank you for all that you've done, Doctor Weir, but your guardianship of this city is no longer necessary. The city is now under my control."

The words felt like someone had sucker punched her in the gut. She suddenly understood the uneasiness she'd been feeling. This had been their plan all along.

* * *

Alice sat on a stool in her lab, it had been three days now, and Helia still hadn't relinquished control of the city and the problem had been escalated to the SGC. In retaliation they'd sent through General O'Neill and Richard Woolsey to manage the situation. Luckily they didn't have to wait six weeks for the Daedalus to go get them, instead travelling through the new gate bridge.

All current projects and off-world missions had been suspended. Not that they could work even if they wanted to. Their captor - Helia - had completely locked them out of the Ancient database.

She looked at her computer blankly, Rodney and her had attempted to tunnel through and find a back way into the database but so far they'd had no luck.

"Still nothing?" Ronon's voice surprised her.

"No. And I think it was a waste of time from the beginning." She sighed and closed the screen. She swung her legs around so she could face Ronon and Teyla. "How are you both doing?" Alice watched as they exchanged a exasperated look. "...Yeah stupid question."

"From what we've been hearing it's unlikely that the ancestors will let anyone stay." Ronon flicked a pen across the desk and onto the floor.

Alice took in a deep breath. "I'm sure O'Neill or Elizabeth won't let it come to that. I mean we can't just abandon the city. Right..." Though as she said it, the more the words seemed less true.

Teyla winced. "When I spoke to Elizabeth it didn't sound like there was going to be a choice." Alice frowned, It made perfect sense, the Ancients wanted their home back. But that didn't have to mean the end of the expedition, did it? Alice felt her breathing getting heavier, she suddenly felt like she was trapped in one of her nightmares. "We'll be sorry to lose such good friends." Teyla sighed grimly, Ronon had a similar expression. "But you must know, we would be honoured if any of you decided to stay. You will always have a place with my people." Teyla placed her hand comfortingly on Alice's shoulder.

Like the restaurant before, the room around her suddenly felt confining and small. "I need to get some air." She blurted out, slamming the lid of her laptop she took off out the door towards the closest balcony.

The wide open space and cool ocean air instantly comforted her. The sun was still high in the sky. Taking in slow deep breaths, she attempt to calm her racing heart beat. "Get it together Riley." She muttered to herself. Weakness wasn't something she handled well, and now only a few days apart she felt weaker than she had in years.

Slowly her heart returned to it's normal pace, and just as she started feeling back to normal an announcement came over the tannoy. "All senior personnel please report to the mess hall."

Alice checked her watch, it was late afternoon. As far as she knew no meetings had been scheduled, so that meant the Ancients must have made their decision.

Instead of panic though, this time she felt her blood run cold with dread. Was this it? Would they really leave Pegasus?

A million thoughts zapped through her head. But it made her stomach heave as she thought about abandoning everything they'd been doing for the past three years. That's when she realised what she'd said to John back on Earth was completely wrong. Earth wasn't her home anymore, she'd never felt like she'd belonged anywhere more than here in this galaxy, with these people.

Reluctantly she pushed herself off the railing and headed heavy footed to the mess hall.

By the time she got there the room was almost full. Though it was supposed to be just senior members, most of the expedition had filed in. She couldn't blame them, everyone was eager to hear what was going to happen.

Pushing her way through the crowd of people, she easily spotted Ronon towering over everyone. She said a quick hello, and then John stepped on top of a table holding his hand up to get everyone's attention. "Alright, everyone listen up." Instantly conversations died across the hall, and everyones eyes turned to John. He cast his gaze across the room and finally Alice felt it rest on her, Teyla and Ronon. "Now, as you all know the crew of the Tria have re-taken control of Atlantis and they've decided..." He took in a breath. "...For the time being, the Earth expedition is to return the city to their ownership." The crowd burst into a shocked and angry chorus. Alice stayed quiet, tensely waiting for the decision that would flip her life upside down. John held his hands up again to try re-gain control. "The IOA and the SGC have agreed to this and we will be evacuating the city. We have 48 hours to pack up and return to Earth. Senior members you will be given your evac responsibilities from Major Lorne. All equipment will be transported on the Daedalus, but personnel and belongings will be going through the Stargate." His face was grim and hard. "Let's get moving people."

Alice felt like her heart had stopped. Her worst fear was coming true. What felt like a lifetime of missions, memories, sacrifices and grief washed over her - suddenly it felt like everything they'd fought for the last three years was for nothing. No matter what they'd overcome, they'd lost Atlantis.

John made his way down from the table and was immediately mobbed by personnel, asking questions and complaining.

Alice felt her chest starting to constrict as her pulse raced, her hand instinctively went to grab the skin over her heart. "Alice, are you okay?" Teyla put her arm on Alice's back.

"I need to get out of here" Alice managed to gasp out, her breathing becoming shallow and rapid.

Teyla nodded with wide eyes and gently lead her out of the room. Together they walked out into the main hallway. Just being out of the crushing crowd already made Alice start thinking clearly. They were going to leave, in two days there would be no more expedition. Personnel rushed past her, some whispering disgruntedly and others openly tearing up. Taking in a deep breath she straightened up, this wasn't the time to wallow in her own grief. She had a job to do and a duty to those under her, she needed to do her best to keep it together for the next 48 hours. At least in public.

The next few hours past by in a blur, once she'd managed to calm down she'd headed to Evan to get her orders. Alice had been put in charge of the main RD lab equipment, and ensuring all her staff knew their disembarkation group and time.

Alice had dismissed everyone around 10pm that night, the grief and disappointment clear on all their faces. They only had a few precious hours left in the city, so she couldn't deny them one last free evening to enjoy the city. Everyone had quickly rushed off to find their close friends, but Alice stayed in the lab

Even after the last person had left, she'd stayed in the lab for a while after everyone left. She'd never imagined she'd end up here, or that it would have made her as happy as she was. Especially now that she was out of the military. Still hanging up at the back wall was a star map of the Pegasus galaxy one of the scientists had brought from Earth. Dragging a stool over she sat in front of the map.

What did going back to Earth mean? What was she going to do now? Would anything ever compare to the work and help they'd done for the people of this galaxy?

She knew the answers to those questions. It was like she could already see the rest of her life mapped out. Once they were back on Earth all the military personnel would either be reassigned to the SGC or the Alpha site and some would be deployed somewhere else on Earth, fighting the political wars of our planet that seemed so trivial now. There was little doubt in her mind John would be given his own SG team to lead.

For her, she'd be offered a position at the SGC, as part of their science team. Which meant little to no gate travel.

John would want to get a place together, and she wouldn't say no. It was just the logical next step, especially considering they basically already lived together here. And she'd spend the rest of her days hardly ever making a difference or stepping through the gate again.

It wasn't the worst future, hell, it was a lot better than most got. But Teyla's words rang in her head. If she wanted to she could stay here. She could still make a difference. But at what personal cost...

When John got back to her room that night it was past midnight. He entered quietly and Alice heard him taking off his boots as he sat on the edge of her bed and let out a weary sigh. "I thought you'd be asleep."

Alice rolled over to look up at him, though in the dark she found it difficult to make out his expressions. "Couldn't sleep." She said softly.

John pulled off his jacket and t-shirt. Then stood up to take off his belt. Alice propped herself up on her elbow as he slid into bed next to her. He put his arm out behind her and pulled her onto his bare chest, kissing the top of her head. "I know. It's been a rough day. Though I have to say of all the times I thought we'd lost the city, this is one of the best."

Alice knew he wasn't wrong, over the last three years there had been some very close calls. "I guess." She muttered.

John placed his finger under her chin, tilting her head up. "Don't worry, i'm sure it won't be forever." He placed a sweet kiss on her lips.

Alice felt herself leaning into him, her kiss becoming desperate. Pushing the blanket back away from them, she felt John's hands slip down her back to her waist.

Placing her hands on either side of his face she swung her leg over his so she was straddling his hips. Instantly John started pulling her shirt over her head momentarily breaking their kiss. Alice's skin felt feverish as she drew in heavy breaths, her eyes locked on John's. Keeping one hand on the small of her back, John drew himself up and easily flipped them over so he was now lying on top of her.

Gently he pushed a piece of hair out of her face, then lowered his lips down tracing kisses down her neck and collar bone. "Whatever happens, we still have each other." His husky voice whispered in between kisses. "I love you."

Alice felt an overwhelming sense of love, fear and guilt. She should tell him what she'd been thinking, every doubt and insecurity she had. But it felt like she'd lost the ability to speak. Instead she lightly drew John's face to hers and placed her lips on his, hoping for one last time to convey everything she felt for him. Knowing that she wouldn't be going back with him.

—-

Alice had stayed awake all night considering whether she was actually going to go through with her worst plan ever.

Even if she stayed here she knew it wouldn't be the same. There would be no expedition, no team, no Atlantis and no John. But if she didn't stay she knew it would be something that ate away at her soul for the rest of her life. She knew a part of her was also doing this to escape her fears, of a true relationship with John, of a future with him. She rationalised it by thinking about the families and people here that needed help.

John didn't need her, he could survive without her. And in a few months he would have moved on as though she never existed. The thought of John getting over her stung, but it wasn't fair for her to expect anything else. It isn't like he'd be able to wait for her.

That's when she knew, she had to break his heart. Like ripping off a band-aid. The only way for him to let her go, was to break their connection. Her hand covered her mouth as she choked back a sob. Her eyes drifting down to John's peacefully sleeping face.

Swallowing the lump in her throat she'd wrapped her arm over him and nuzzled her face into his chest, breathing in his presence. Her eyes burned as tears started falling down her cheeks.

She'd stayed like that until she could see the morning light streaming in through the window. Before John could wake up she'd showered and slipped out of the room.

"Evan!" Alice pushed her way past a group of marines, Evan was standing at the end of a hallway with a clipboard in his hand and a pen slid behind his ear.

"Hey Aly-cat." He didn't look up as he squinted down at his board. "Shouldn't you be in the lab?" Alice pursed her lips and swung her hands behind her back, grabbing her wrist with the other hand. When Alice didn't reply Evan looked up. "What's up?"

She bit her lip. "I know you're super busy at the moment, but could I steal you for a few minutes."

Evan narrowed his eyes and examined her face, knowing something was wrong. "Sure. Lloyd take over." He handed the clipboard to Alice's friend, who flashed her a grin before Evan led her away from group. "Okay. What's going on. The last time I saw that look on your face you told me you were screwing your CO." He folded his arms over his chest, raising an eyebrow accusingly.

Alice lightly punched his shoulder. "Don't say it like that." Then her eyes dropped to the floor. "I've been thinking..."

"Well that's dangerous." Alice scrunched up her face. Evan smirked. "Sorry, i'm listening."

"I've been thinking about what happens next, for all of us." She released her wrist and let her hands drag up her sides, before resting on the back of her hips.

"You mean back on Earth?" Evan tilted his head. "Well, i guess I'll be assigned to another SG team. You could probably do whatever you like, i couldn't imagine them taking you out of the programme if that's what you're worried about."

Alice dropped her gaze down to the floor. "And if I didn't come back..."

Evan dropped his arms, his mouth turning into a slight frown. "You mean stay? Here?" She nodded. "Aly, we don't exactly have a choice."

"I know you don't. But maybe I do."

Evan didn't say anything for a moment. "Have you spoken to him about this?" He didn't need to say his name for Alice to know he was talking about John. Evan also didn't need to wait for her to answer as she shuffled uncomfortably under his gaze. "Als, you've got to talk to him. Heck you should be talking to him right now, not me."

She swallowed. "I don't even know what I'd say." it was true the thought of telling John terrified her. The guilt of not telling him though was crippling, she'd never hated herself more knowing how much this was going to hurt him.

Evan put his hand on her shoulder. "You know what staying would mean, right? I mean we might never see you again."

Alice rushed forward and threw her arms around Evan. "I know." Her voice was barely a whisper. "But I feel like this is the right thing for me."

Evan pulled her tightly against him. "I'm going to miss you so much, but Als, you need to tell him."

"I will." She closed her eyes just enjoying the moment.

—-

The day blew past before Alice knew what had happened. The lab was deserted, it looked like they'd never even been there. It left a hollow feeling in her chest.

Her team were mulling about comparing their group numbers that Alice had just given out. "You okay?" She jumped as Rodney suddenly appeared behind her.

"Yeah. I mean. No. But we have to be right?" She shrugged, wrapping an arm over her stomach as she felt her chest starting to tighten.

"Really? Why?" Rodney sounded frustrated. "I can't believe we're just giving up without a fight."

"Rodney, they physically have control of the entire city. We couldn't do anything even if we tried." She tried to reason.

"It's not fair. We've done more for this galaxy than they have or ever will do." Rodney said defiantly.

Alice raised an eyebrow at him, wondering how this was the same man who just over a week ago was dying to meet a living Ancient. "Life wouldn't be fun if it was fair." She tried to give him a small smile, but she was sure even he could tell how forced it was.

"What are we supposed to do now?" Rodney sighed.

Alice took in a deep breath, trying to control her racing heartbeat. "Do what we do best. Adapt." She was talking more to herself than Rodney. Placing a hand on his shoulder she gave it a small squeeze before backing away to the door. "I'll see you at the balcony."

It was surreal to see the halls so bare and derelict. The last time she'd seen them like this was the day they arrived on Atlantis. How that was three years ago, she didn't know. She looked at each face she passed, looking for one in particular. "Teyla!"

Teyla was helping one of the medics with some oxygen tanks. She said a couple of words to her, before heading over to Alice. "Is everything okay?"

Alice nodded. "I've been thinking about your offer."

—-

The doors to the balcony slid open to reveal a stunning starry sky and a glowing full moon. A light breeze swirled around Alice's hair as she stepped out to join her friends.

Elizabeth had decided they needed to have a proper goodbye to the city and Teyla and Ronon. So standing in front of a illuminated ocean was John, Teyla, Ronon, Rodney, Carson and Evan. "Alice!" Elizabeth called cheerfully.

Ducking her head shamefully she picked up the pace until she'd joined the rest of the group. "Sorry I'm late."

"Elizabeth wouldn't let us start without you." Rodney grumbled miserably looking at his empty cup.

Carson handed Alice a small empty cup and John held up a bottle of champagne. "We started this expedition with champagne, seems only right to end with it as well." He expertly popped the bottle, with only a small amount of fizz then started pouring it into everyone's outstretched glasses.

Once everyone's cups were full he dropped the bottle and lifted his own. Elizabeth drew in a breath and gazed around at them. "When we first walked through that gate three years ago, we had no idea what we were getting ourselves into or if we'd even ever make it back to Earth. But I have to say these past few years have been some of the best of my life, and it's thanks to all of you. You have made this the best job ever." Elizabeth paused as she broke out into a large smile. "It's been an honour working alongside all of you." She lifted her glass up.

A lump formed in Alice's throat as she lifted her own glass, looking at the small group gathered around her. It had been almost a lifetime since she'd felt like she actually had a family, and she couldn't believe she was losing them now. Nothing would ever be the same again.

"Cheers" John said sullenly, and everyone took a sip.

Unlike the last time there wasn't any celebratory cheer or warm smiles and hugs. Instead the wind seemed to get colder and the night darker. Everyone had the same tight expression as they relished their final moments together as a member of the expedition, because as soon as the sun rose it was all over.

—-

It was about 3am when John and Alice left the balcony, and together headed back to her room for a final time.

Alice chewed the inside of her cheek, her stomach was squirming and her heart beating fast. She'd run out of time. There were no other moments left, it was time for her to tell him.

John opened the door for them and stepped aside allowing her to go through first. Alice's eyes drank in the sight of her bare room. The only furniture left was her bed, the rest of it had all been broken down and transported onto the Daedalus. She wouldn't be needing any of it now. Two duffle bags sat on the floor beside the bed.

She'd managed to slip one of John's shirts that he'd left in her drawers inside. Knowing that in the months to come it might be the only reminder that he actually existed.

Her jacket pocket felt heavy and clinked slightly as she moved towards the bed, reminding her of the small parting gift she'd decided to give to John.

"I can't believe this is it." John murmured softly, walking over to the window.

Alice felt her chest tightening and her palms suddenly felt clammy. "I'm not leaving." She blurted out in a moment of rash panic. John's entire body stiffened. She felt like slapping herself, for almost 24 hours all she'd thought about was how to bring this up and that's how her brain decided to deliver it.

"What are you talking about?"

Her breath started coming in shorter gasps. "I'm going to stay with Teyla and Ronon." She wasn't sure at first if he'd heard her because of how timid and soft her voice was.

John turned around slowy to face her. "Riles you can't stay."

Alice started trembling. "I can't go back. I can't let everything we've fought for mean nothing."

His eyes softened. "I know you want to help, but you can't save the whole galaxy."

"No. But it's better than nothing."

"Riles-"

Alice shook her head, dropping her gaze to the floor. "I can still make a difference here. So I'm going to."

"So that's it? Just like that..."

Alice raised her eyes, her throat constricted at the pain in John's face. "I'm sorry." Tears started forming

"No." John turned away from her, running a hand through his hair. "That's not good enough!" He yelled.

"John-" Alice went to step towards him.

John wheeled around, his eyes blazing. "Why didn't you say something sooner? There's more to this than you're telling me!"

Alice felt tears streaming down her face. "This had to be my decision. Not yours."

"No." John's face twisted into a grim smile. "But this decision doesn't just effect you Alice!" He turned his back to her, his hands clutching at his head. "So just like that, we're done, after everything we've been through." No matter what they'd faced or how hopeless things had seemed, she'd never heard him sound so defeated and broken. "How could you do this?"

It was like something broke inside her. Every fear, anxiety and doubt came spilling out of her. "Because as much as I love you, I can't have a future with you. Not right now. And before you say you don't want marriage or kids, one day you'll wake up and realise you want more from me. And I just can't give you that." Alice's throat hurt as she raised her voice. "And I can't bear to see your face when you realise that."

John's eyes widened. "The restaurant. The proposal. That's what triggered your anxiety attack."

Alice dropped her face to the floor. Of course he would have pulled her medical file from the Daedalus. "I'm just not ready to be someone's everything."

"You'd rather give it all up? And I don't even get a say in this?" Alice couldn't bear to look up. "Do you know how selfish that is?"

Her throat felt raw. "Maybe I just need to be selfish then. Who are you to tell me what I should do?!"

"Fine. You want to stay then stay. Don't expect me to beg you not to."

"I don't."

"Great!" He yelled and stormed out of the door.

Alice felt her knees go weak and she collapsed back onto the bed, tears pouring down her face and sobs wracking her body. It was over, she repeated over and over in her head. And he was better of without her.

There was only a few hours left before sunrise. Grabbing her blanket, she headed out of her room to the south pier. Laying it on the ground she sat down cradling her knees to her chest.

Looking out across the city she thought about everything that had happened over the past two and a bit years. They'd lost so many people, yet they'd managed to help so many people - like Mareena. There was still so much for them to do still, they'd barely made a dent in the Wraith's forces and they were just supposed to waltz back to their own galaxy like it had never happened.

This galaxy and its people relied on them. The thought of going back to Earth, of everything they'd done being for nothing seemed like too much to bear.

But then she thought of John. There was no doubt in her mind that she loved him. She'd never loved anyone before, not like this. It was hard for her to imagine her life without John in it.

—-

Alice stood in the doorway of her room. Two bags were packed at her feet, the room in front of her was as empty as the day they'd found it. She took in a deep breath and picked up her bags, turning the light off and heading towards the control to drop off her bags.

Everywhere people with sullen faces wrapped the last bits of equipment and moved it to the designated spots. "Here allow me to help." Teyla held her hand out for one of Alice's bags.

"Thanks." She handed her the lighter of the two and together they walked to the gateroom. "Are you all packed?"

Teyla gave her a small encouraging smile. "Yes, you can put your things with mine." Alice looked over at her friend, who was biting down on her lip. "Have you spoken to John yet?"

Alice felt a tug on her gut. "I told him last night."

Teyla must had read her expression, as she didn't ask how it went. "Ronon and I were going to head to his room after this. If you would like to come?"

"I don't think he wants to see me right now." Her stomach felt like it was tying itself in knots. She remembered the look on his face when he'd left her room last night, it wouldn't be right of her to barge in on him now.

They dropped her bags amongst Teyla and Ronon's possessions. Ronon's consisting of a single rucksack. Then Teyla opened her arms and wrapped Alice in a warm embrace. "It pains to see how much sorrow this decision has caused you."

"But I still wouldn't change it." Alice replied, smiling as she pulled back from her friend. "Go see John. I'm just going to stay here for a moment." She gazed around the gateroom.

"Alright. We'll see you soon." Teyla turned to head down the hall to the transporter.

Alice's pocket seemed to suddenly get heavier. "Teyla!" She yelled out desperately, running to catch up with her friend. "I know it's weird to ask, but would you mind slipping this into John's bag?"

Teyla looked down as Alice slipped the cold metal into her hand. Her fingers tightened over it and she smiled. "Of course."

—-

Alice stood in the corridor just off the gateroom. She watched Rodney run down the stairs and join Elizabeth, Carson and John.

"Come on." Teyla put her hand on Alice's shoulder.

Alice didn't move. "I don't think he wants me there."

"You will regret it if you don't say goodbye. Come on." Teyla reassured her and walked out towards their team.

Alice swallowed, and stamped her foot on the ground. "Come on Riley..." then she walked out to stand next to Teyla and Ronon.

"You have been good friends - to all the people of this galaxy." Teyla was smiling at Elizabeth, Rodney, Carson and John. Carson looked like he was on the verge of tears.

Hesitantly, John walked over to Teyla. Alice bowed her head, and stepped back slightly. But John didn't even glance at her. Silently he touched his forehead to Teyla's in the Athosian tradition. Out of the corner of her eye she saw John's lips move, but she was too far to hear his whispers.

Then John stepped back to the others. Alice felt like her heart had just cracked. He couldn't even look at her.

Carson, Evan and Elizabeth each said their own goodbyes and each embrace felt like a sharp stab in her heart.

"Bye." Rodney broke the silence as he waved to Alice, Teyla and Ronon.

"Goodbye." Alice smiled at her former teammate and friend, stepping forward to wrap her arms around his neck. "Stay safe Rodney."

"You too Aly." Then he turned to follow the others towards the open gate.

Tears fell freely from her eyes now, as she watched John step towards the event horizon. It took everything in her not to yell his name, tell him how sorry she was and that she would come back with him. By the time his back disappear into the puddle, she'd managed to dig her nails into her palm so hard she could feel blood pooling around them. The worst part was he hadn't even looked back.

Elizabeth though, stopped and turned back to look around her city one last time.

Then they were gone.

The gate shut down and Alice turned back to Teyla and Ronon, wiping the tears from her face. "Guess it's our turn then."

Teyla wrapped her arm around Alice's shoulder. "I'm sorry Alice."

She didn't say anything, just sniffled and walked over to the corner to grab her bags. The gate dialled and they moved in front of the event horizon. Alice looked over her shoulder, wondering if she would ever see the gateroom or John ever again.

Reluctantly, she turned let out a deep breath and stepped through the gate.

—

 **A/N Sorry not sorry!**

 **There was no other way I could see this playing out in my head, given Alice's fears and insecurities - and John had to find out about them sooner or later. If only Alice was better at dealing with her emotions.**

 **I've split these two episodes into about fpur chapters so we'll get a good idea of everything happening from Alice and John's POV.**

 **Thanks for reading and happy new year!**


	31. The Return: Part 2

A/N- Hope the January blues aren't hitting everyone too hard. But to perk you all up, here is the next chapter!

 **As i mentioned in my last update, the time frame of these episodes have changed slightly from a 6 week period to a 6 month period.**

 **Thanks to TheShadowsNightmare and** **TheStrangeBunny for your reviews - sorry for any devastation.**

 **But although there isn't any JohnxAlice contact in this chapter there is plenty of angst.**

 **Happy reading!**

 _ **One month later.**_

Alice blinked as the sun rose higher in the sky and its beams started streaming through her makeshift door. Stretching out her stiff limbs she sat up in her bed and stared around her place. Calling it a house would be a bit of a overstatement, the walls were made out of wood, mud and cloth and the floor was covered with a thin rug. But it was enough for her, she barely spent any time in it anyway.

It had been 63 days since they'd left Atlantis and Alice's dufflebags still laid half packed on the floor. It wasn't that she imagined leaving here anytime soon, but unpacking them seemed to final. And she still felt slightly in denial over the whole situation. Everything had happened so fast from finding the crew of the Tria to evacuating Atlantis, there hadn't been a lot of time to really process everything. But she couldn't stop thinking about it now.

Alice's datapad was next to her bed with her gun and a notebook. Rodney had been kind enough to slip in a naquadah generator into the Athosian's gear when they were evacuating. It had been a week or so after they'd arrived here when Telos had called Alice and Teyla over because one of the bags was humming.

Cautiously they'd opened up the bag and inside was the generator and a note.

 _The generator should last you more than ten years with the amount of energy you'll be using._

 _Hope this helps._

 _McKay_

Alice had burst out laughing at the formality of the note. But she also felt a sharp ache within her as she thought of her former teammate.

As she sat looking around her small room she wondered what Rodney was doing now. If he'd stayed with the SGC or moved on. She knew it was dangerous to speculate as she couldn't think of Rodney without thinking about him. The memory of the man left her raw and empty.

She had to move, as long as she kept moving she wouldn't be swallowed up by her emotions. Throwing off her blankets she stood up, trying to clear her mind. There was plenty of work that needed doing and the more she focused on that and the people who needed her the stronger she felt.

Quickly she changed into a fresh set of clothes from her duffle bag, her fingers brushing over the material of John's shirt. As she pulled her shirt over her head, her nose filled with his fading smell. Closing her eyes she took in a deep breath, letting the smell relax her before she headed outside, squinting at the bright sun.

The Athosians were simple people, they didn't need or want lavish homes all they wanted was a peaceful place to grow old and enjoy their lives without fear from the Wraith.

Kids ran around past Alice, she could hear them yelling out 'it' as they giggled. She may or may not have been teaching them some more Earth games. The settlement was coming together well, it hadn't taken them long to put together all the homes as the Athosians were almost nomadic in nature. They weren't into permanent structures, but that was probably for the best. They knew so little about this planet that they might need to move at some point.

The first few weeks on New Athos had been exactly what she'd expected. A lot of work went into building a completely new settlement, planting as many crops as possible and learning to hunt the new wildlife.

The days on New Athos were just over 26 hours long, and they seemed to be in the middle of Spring. Alice had managed to convince Helia to allow them access to the Ancient's database and download all the information stored about this planet. So they knew the seasons were long and they had plenty of time to grow a healthy supply of food before winter.

Those first few weeks were extremely labour intensive, Alice was still covered head to toe in bruises and cuts. But no matter how tired or exhausted she felt, at the end of every day she felt a warm sensation seeing the difference they'd made.

It hadn't taken long for the Athosian's to accept Alice and Ronon as one of their own. The first night they'd spent on New Athos had turned into a bit of a celebration of sorts, and there had been a lot of Athosian moonshine. Alice wasn't ashamed to admit, she'd had more than her fair share trying to forget the pain of what had happened.

When Alice wasn't working in the fields she spent her time with Ronon training. She knew that she couldn't be a farmer for ever and as much as she cared about the Athosians, her place wasn't among them. And neither was Ronon's. It wasn't difficult to see him getting more restless building and farming day after day. But it had become more evident over the last few days.

When Alice had suggested daily sparring sessions a couple of weeks back he'd practically jumped at the idea. Though she hadn't exactly predicted how seriously he was going to take her training, not that he had before, but he didn't hold anything back in their sessions and she had the bruises to show it. Though she was proud to have left a few of her own marks as well.

Flexing her muscles, she swung her arms back and forth around her. Trying to loosen up the stiffness she felt from over exerting herself. After hours under the relentless sun and evenings sparring, she barely had the strength to change her clothes. But she preferred it that way. It meant she had almost no time to think about how much she missed not being able to hear the ocean or the feel the warmth of John laying next to her as she slept.

Folding over her stomach she reached down for her toes feeling the muscles in her back slowly relax. Straightening back up, she checked her shoes and then started running. Usually Teyla joined her for a morning jog around the area, but she was busy this morning attending to some village matters, so that left Alice alone.

The thought of being alone with her thoughts made her tense. Since they'd been here she'd constantly been on the move, busying herself with one thing after another. She barely took any breaks, and when the rest of the village rested, she was either sparring with Ronon or sketching out some design to improve the village. Afraid that if she stopped the sadness and grief would overwhelm her.

Teyla and Ronon had been careful not to mention John's name around her, but even that couldn't stop the sudden ache in her chest when she thought about him.

She had never felt about someone they way she'd felt about him. And she wasn't sure if she would ever feel that way again. It had caught her off-guard how badly she noticed his absence, she didn't even need to be thinking about him to know he wasn't there. It was as though someone had taken a part of her away.

Those kind of thoughts were dangerous. So just pretended they didn't exist, hoping that one day maybe they wouldn't.

Throughout her run she focused on the pacing of her feet, and the rate of her breath. Every run she took a new path, exploring the new planet bit by bit. Today she'd found a new river about 4km away from their village.

By the time she made it back, the rest of the Athosians had started waking up and preparing to start their day of work. Alice wiped sweat from her brow and placed her hands on her knees, taking in deep breaths.

"You're getting better." Ronon's voice came from behind her.

"Thanks" She smiled breathlessly. "Today was the furthest I've gone. Though I'm still sore from last night's session." As she said it, the rib Ronon had accidentally bruised twinged.

He clapped his hand on her back. "Ready to go?"

Alive huffed and straightened up. "Sure." Together they headed into the fields, ready for another day of ploughing and planting.

After a few hours, Alice was sat on the edge of the well they'd made splashing the cold water on her face. The days were getting warmer and drier as they approached summer.

"Aly!" Ronon yelled. Alice squinted, looking up and wiping her brow with her sleeve.

Ronon was waving his hand, gesturing for her to come back towards the settlement. Curious, Alice stood up bringing her tools with her and made her way across the field back into the village. "What's up?" She dropped her tools into a weaved basket.

"The Genii are here." Ronon's eyes were narrowed suspiciously and a scowl was forming on his mouth.

"What do they want..." she raised an eyebrow.

Since they'd given Atlantis back to the Ancients they'd not heard from either them or the Genii. The only people Alice had any contact with were the Taranans and the kids on M7G-677, they'd been having trouble with their ZPM again.

Ronon shrugged and started leading her towards Teyla's tent. Now, they were back amongst the Athosians, Teyla had taken back her role as leader of her people. Even though Ronon and her weren't Athosian they didn't have any problems following her. Her time with the expedition had given her the best qualities from both John and Elizabeth. And neither Ronon or Alice had any desire to take over or set out on their own.

Before they pushed through the curtain into Teyla's tent, Alice realised how much of a mess she looked. She was covered in dirt, mud and sweat. Not to mention the mottling of bruises that covered her skin. If they were back on Atlantis, there was no way she'd be heading into any meeting looking like this. But this wasn't Atlantis, she reminded herself and stepped through the opening.

Three Genii soldiers stood with their backs to Alice and Ronon. But she recognised the man in the middle instantly.

"Ah Doctor Riley, Ronon." Ladon dipped his head respectfully. "It's good to see you."

Alice bit her lip, holding her tongue as she directed her gaze over to Teyla. "Please let's all sit." Teyla said politely.

Ladon and his men, didn't hesitate. They pulled out the bench of the table and sat down. Alice noticed they were armed, though not heavily. She tapped her foot on the floor, before moving forward to sit next to Teyla. She was aware only Ronon was armed on their side, her gun was still in its holster next to her bed. But if they'd come to fight then they wouldn't have sent the leader of the Genii.

Hesitantly, she lowered herself down, folding her arms over her chest. Ronon stayed standing, crossing his arm over his broad chest.

"Ladon." Alice acknowledged him. "And you can just call me Alice."

Ladon gave her a diplomatic smile. "Very well. Alice." He looked around at them and clasped his hands in front of him. "The Genii were very sorry to hear of your people returning back to your home planet." He address Alice directly as he spoke. "I heard that you had stayed and I knew you would never come to me... so I thought I would come to you. Our relationship has been ... strained, but we need to put all that behind us now."

"We do?" Ronon said from behind her.

"Well, your friends have all returned home and you've been asked to leave Atlantis. So the question is: what will you do next?" Ladon didn't seem phased by Ronon's intimidating position.

Teyla straightened and gestured outside. "We are helping my people rebuild this settlement."

"Yes, but the settlement seems finished." He looked up at Ronon. "Besides, is carpentry and clearing brush really the best use of your skills?"

Teyla sighed exasperatedly. "Get to the point."

A small smirk appeared in the corner of Ladon's mouth. "Come work with me." Ronon snorted quietly, but once again Ladon focused his gaze onto Alice. "I understand your reluctance. In the past, the Genii have hardly been the shining beacon of hope in the galaxy."

Alice raised her eyebrows and tilted her head. "You could say that again."

"We are growing stronger every day, and we have a number of operations planned that could seriously cripple the Wraith."

Alice leaned forward, putting her elbows on the table. Her eyes focused directly on Ladon's. "What do you have in mind?"

Ladon dropped her gaze. "Well, I am of course reluctant to go into specific details here ..." Alice leaned back and glanced up at Ronon. She could tell he was thinking the same thing - there was no plan. "... but suffice it to say the plans are dangerous and in need of your unique abilities."

"We're not interested." Ronon grunted.

Ladon smiled again and pushed his chair back, standing up. His guards stood beside him. Alice and Teyla followed suit. Ladon pulled down the bottom of his jacket. "Well, that's too bad ... although not entirely surprising. Give it some time, Ronon and Alice. I wonder how much joy you'll find as a tava bean farmer."

Alice seethed, but mostly because she knew he was right. After everything they'd put her and her team through, the last people she wanted to form an alliance with was the Genii. But what choice did they have. They couldn't exactly take on the Wraith by themselves, and the Athosians weren't warriors.

Alice waited until she couldn't hear the footsteps of Ladon and his men as they headed back to the gate, before she turned to look at Teyla and Ronon. "As much as I hate to say it. He does have a point." Alice sighed and leaned back onto the table.

"I'm not working with the Genii." Ronon stomped over to the otherside of the table and took one of the Genii's vacant seats.

Alice flicked a piece of food off the table. "I don't think we really have much choice. We can't take the Wraith on by ourselves without any resources. And it's not like the Ancients are going to ask for our help."

Ronon grunted. "I still don't like it."

Alice turned to Teyla. "What do you think?"

Teyla pursed her lips and looked down at her interlocked hands. "My people are farmers, not warriors. If you wish to return to the fight, the Genii do offer the best option."

Alice narrowed her eyes. "You mean you wouldn't join us?"

A small shadow of sadness and guilt passed over Teyla's face. "I have been away from my people for a long time. Right now, they need to be my priority."

Alice wanted to argue, to say they wouldn't go without her, but she knew it wouldn't change her mind. "Nothing needs to be decided tonight. There's still plenty for us to do here."

Ronon grunted, and stood up to leave the room.

Alice sighed and stood up to follow him. "I better get back to work."

As she lay in bed that night, she thought about Ladon's offer. No matter how much she'd disliked the Genii in the past or how much trouble they'd caused her, she couldn't deny how tempted she was at the offer. They had everything she needed to continue the work the expedition had started, resources, equipment and soldiers. Granted they'd proven to be unreliable in the past, but if she had a chance to train them, share her knowledge, then just maybe they could make it work.

She rolled over onto her side, she could almost hear John's voice in her head. He wouldn't approve of this, he'd tell her to find another way. But there wasn't a lot of options, and as she was painfully aware he wasn't here.

—

Barely two days had passed before Ladon returned. Alice had been expecting it, she knew he wouldn't let them turn him down so easily. And as much as she loved Teyla and the Athosians, the prospect of getting back into the field and helping people was too tempting. At the end of the day, that was why she'd stayed.

If Ladon hadn't stepped through the gate that morning, Alice had been prepared to go directly to him. She'd noticed him from the edge of the field, heading straight for Teyla's tent, with two guards flanking him carrying large bags.

Alice instantly dropped her tools in the dirt and ran over to them, whistling to capture Ronon's attention. He'd been repairing the roofing of one of the Athosian's homes. He jumped down straight away to join her. "They're back." He knew exactly what she was talking about as his face donned that familiar scowl as she approached him.

They hadn't spoken much about Ladon's offer, but she had an idea what Ronon's reply would be. But no matter how much he hated them, she was sure he wouldn't let her go alone. Alice wiped her hands on the back of her jacket before stepping into Teyla's home. "You're back sooner than we thought."

Ladon smiled. "You're more valuable to us than you think." He gestured to his guards, they dropped the bags they were carrying. "At least a month's worth of food and supplies. If you agree to work with us we will continue to supply the Athosians with what ever they need."

Alice looked up at Teyla in surprise, though she normally had a great poker face, even she looked shocked at the proposed exchange. Ladon really must be desperate.

"We have not had much time to consider your offer." Teyla glanced between Ladon and the supplies. Alice knew the Athosians needed these - they'd planted crops but it would be some time before they were ready to be harvested and they'd only been able to take what they could from the Lantean mainland and those supplies were already running low.

"What about medical supplies and military support?" Alice stepped forward, knowing this was her best time to negotiate.

Ladon turned his attention to her, a small gleam in his eyes igniting as he realised what this meant. "Whatever you need."

Alice took in a breath. "Then I have some conditions, but..." she glanced up at Ronon and Teyla. "I'm in."

Ladon's mouth widened into a broad grin. "I promise you won't regret it."

Ronon huffed behind her, stepping forward so he was by her side. His arms crossed threateningly over his chest. "There's no way I'm letting you go with them alone."

"We wouldn't have it any other way." Ladon kept his grin, unfazed by Ronon's show of force, then shifted his gaze to Teyla.

She gave Alice an apologetic look. "I'm sorry, my place at the moment is with my people."

Ladon's face fell ever so slightly, but he didn't look surprised. "I understand." Then he turned back to address Alice and Ronon. "We would like you to join us as soon as possible. We could certainly use your expertise - both of you."

Alice's heart pounded as adrenaline started pulsing through her. "We only need a few minutes."

"We'll wait for you at the gate." Ladon held his hand out to Alice.

Alice took his hand and watched him and his guards leave. They waited a few moments, then Alice threw her arms around Teyla. "We'll be back before you know it. Be safe."

Teyla laughed softly against her ear. "Do not worry about me. Stay close to Ronon and remember, no matter what they say the Genii have proven to be untrustworthy in the past."

Alice let go and let Ronon in to say a quick goodbye. "I'll meet you at the edge of the village, i just have to grab a few things." Alice ran back to her own house, throwing her make-shift mattress over to get under her bed. A black duffel bag sat there covered in a thin layer of dirt.

She pulled the bag out and took out her old Atlantis military uniform. She'd kept it purely for sentimental reasons, but it felt appropriate to put it back on. It felt like a small piece of armour she could wear, to protect her from what felt like a deal with the devil.

She changed quickly and pulled her hair up into a bun. Then grabbing her gun belt, she ran out of the tent towards the edge of the village.

—-

 _ **Three months later.**_

For three months now Alice had been running ops on and off for the Genii. So far, they'd kept to their end of the bargain. Ladon hadn't exactly been happy to find out a condition of her help was that she would not assist in creating any weapons or nuclear warheads. Nothing that was too far ahead of their current level of technology. But he'd made it very clear how badly they needed her help, so albeit reluctantly, he agreed to her conditions.

The Genii had given both her and Ronon their own quarters on the base. Most of the time they both preferred going back to New Athos, but when they were running ops or training till the early hours of the morning, Alice was thankful to have somewhere to crash.

As Alice and Ronon had expected the 'master plan' Ladon had hinted at was rough. But with them on board they'd helped refine and build upon his strategy. So far they'd run a few surveillance ops trying to work out any patterns they could to the Wraith's movements. They'd discovered that the different factions of the Wraith each claimed a different section of space, occasionally one faction would challenge another but mostly they avoided each other.

Alice huffed, she was standing in a brightly lit room with her fists raised. Ladon stood opposite her, his stance low and his eyes calculating. No matter what move she made Ladon's body would adjust to it. If she was going to beat him, she'd have to be fast and quick enough to catch him off guard. Making her decision she struck, rushing forward she tensed her arm and made all the preparations for a palm strike. Ladon's eyes followed her, already moving to block her. But at the lAst minute Alice dropped into a crouch and swung her leg out as hard as she could catching the back of Ladon's knees. His body fell hard down onto the floor.

Quickly she twisted back up and thrust her foot down onto his neck. "And you're dead." She grinned. "maybe leadership is making you soft." She pulled back her foot, allowing Ladon to stand.

"Or I was just never the best fighter to begin with." He countered.

Alice raised an eyebrow. "You were part of Kolya's strike team. From what I've gathered that's the equivalent of special forces back on Earth." Ladon gave her a slightly confused look, but she didn't bother trying to explain herself.

"Against a regular opponent I would consider myself a fair fighter, but against the likes of yourself or Ronon. There's a reason we carry guns." He joked.

Alice let out a small laugh. "Yeah you don't ever want to pull a gun on the big guy." The more time she spent with Ladon the more she felt her guard slowly dropping. He was easy to get along with, intelligent and unlike the previous Genii leaders had a sense of empathy. "Thanks for the spar. I hope your wife doesn't mind I kept you back a few hours."

Ladon rubbed his hand through his ruffled hair. "Don't worry, there is no wife."

"Oh. Sorry I just assumed..." Alice cringed.

Ladon held up his hand to stop her. "There were a lot of sacrifices I had to make to get to where I am now. I have no regrets." Alice pursed her lips and stepped back to sit down on the bench against the wall. "What about you? Do you have someone special?"

Alice felt her throat tighten. "No...Not anymore." She said honestly.

Ladon stepped towards her and sat down on the bench next to her. "We all make decisions that haunt us. But we can't change what's in the past." Hesitantly he reached out and put a hand on Alice's knee.

Glancing over to him she saw the soft eyes and smile and she knew exactly what he was offering. In the past she wouldn't have hesitated, it would have been easy to fall into bed with Ladon. He was a good man, despite their rocky start, and would keep her entertained at least for a bit. But that was before John. She dropped his gaze and got to her feet. "Thank you Ladon. It helps to have good friends."

Ladon sighed behind her gently. "I'm going to get cleaned up."

"Let me know the next time you're looking for a sparring partner." She waved back at him as she headed out of the room towards her quarters.

After dinner she settled into her quarters and slipped into the cold sheets. The air in the base was stale and cold, a result of the Genii pumping recycled air through their underground base. It wasn't something she could get used to, and definitely not somewhere she would ever call home, but it worked for now.

As she laid in her bunk, she thought about Ladon's advance and she tried not to think about John. But it was almost impossible.

She wondered if she'd ever be able to go a day without thinking of him. When she wouldn't need distractions to get her through the day. But it had been six months and every morning she woke up with the same pain in her chest and image in her head.

 _ **Two months later - 5 months since leaving Atlantis**_

Alice slapped a magazine into the Genii weapon, then slipped it into the holster on her thigh. Then she pulled out the rifle from its holder, checking its load and slipping the strap over her shoulder.

She quickly checked over the equipment in her tac-vest then twisted her neck around to search for Ronon's face. He was already making his way through prepping soldiers towards her, his lip turned into a scowl when he saw her. "I know. I know. It's hideous isn't it." She looked down at the Genii uniform she was wearing. "But I need these men to trust me, I'm in command of this opp and I need them to follow my orders. If putting on this-" she tugged on the brown fabric. "means they're less likely to hesitate then..." she knew she didn't have to finish the sentence.

Ronon still didn't like being here. The only reason he was still here was because of her. He especially didn't like the budding friendship between her and Ladon. But at least they were back into the action, doing what they did best.

Today was the day they'd been waiting for. A few weeks ago on a routine scouting mission, Alice had started noticing the Wraith reactivating their old outposts. They hadn't been able to get close enough to determine what they were for, but it couldn't be good. They'd spent countless hours scouting outposts on numerous planets and today they were launching their first strike mission against one.

"Once you've geared up go to the gate and proceed to your designated squadrons." Alice yelled through the bunker as the Genii soldiers stuffed excess ammo into their packs. Ronon gave her a gruff nod, and together they headed for the gate.

Ladon was waiting at the gate with his two highest ranking generals. The generals were middle aged, grey and tight lipped. She'd met them once before when Ladon had invited her to join one of his council strategy meetings. They'd been hesitant of Alice and Ronon's involvement in Genii business, especially of how much trust Ladon was placing in her. She'd been given access to virtually every project they had in development at the moment, and now she was in command of this mission.

"Today is a momentous day for the Genii. Today we show the Wraith we cease to cower in fear of their power. Today we fight back." Ladon's voice rang clear in the clearing. "Good luck." He looked directly at Alice and nodded. That was his signal.

"Alright." Alice shouted, getting her strike team's attention. "You all know the plan, we need to be in and out as quick as possible. Stick with your teams and stay on target." She gazed at Ronon, who gave her a small nod. "Dial the gate!"


	32. Upload issues

Hi all,

Sorry about the delay, I've had so many issues uploading this chapter...

But click back one chapter and you'll be able to read part 2 of The Return!

Happy reading.

AegisEterna


	33. The Return: Part 3

**A/N The wait is over!**

 **We get to see how John's been handling his time back on Earth and the aftermath of the breakup as well as the initial reunion between him and Riles!**

 **Hope you enjoy!**

 _ **John POV**_

 _ **Two weeks after leaving Atlantis**_

John sat on the edge of the bed. The lights were on, but they were so dim that they did little to brighten the room. The grey floors and walls didn't help enhance the room either.

He was lucky he guessed, because of his rank he'd been given private quarters.

There was nothing special about them, an American flag hung on one wall and some pictures of the gate hung on another. He assumed this was the room they used for diplomatic stays. There was were no windows and nothing personal in the room to make it John's, except for the duffle bag of his clothes.

He couldn't complain though, most of the other Atlantis military personnel were stuck in cramped dorms a few floors further underground, until they decided what to do with them. There was simply too many of them for the SGC to handle and some of his men had already been shipped out to new details.

No. He reminded himself. They weren't his people anymore. He wasn't the commander of Atlantis. He was just another Air Force officer awaiting orders and he knew no matter where they assigned him, it wouldn't come close to what he'd had.

He expected it wouldn't be long before he got a letter delivered to his door telling him to be ready to deploy within the hour. It wouldn't be the first time. He assumed he'd be given a role within the Stargate programme, but anything could happen.

He sighed and dragged his hands down his face. It was a little after 3am, but he couldn't sleep. He wasn't sure if it was the gate-lag or the gut wrenching pain in his chest that was keeping him awake.

Riles. For what felt like the millionth time he replayed it all in his head. Her words, his reaction. The fact he hadn't even said a final goodbye to her. The look on her face in the gateroom had almost broken him, it had taken him everything to step through the gate knowing it was taking him away from her.

His blood started to boil. Even after two weeks the anger hadn't faded. He hated her for staying, for not giving him any options, for not being here with him. But he hated himself more. For the things he said, the things he didn't say and ultimately for not staying with her.

John abruptly stood up, and ran his hands through his hair. He couldn't stand sitting alone in this room thinking about her. How he'd never see her again.

Throwing open his door, he stormed out into the hall, not caring about the slam it made as it hit the wall.

He didn't know exactly where he was going, but he kept walking, hoping to clear his head. "Hey Colonel!" A familiar voice called out to him.

John glanced over his shoulder to see Lorne walking up behind him. "Oh...Major."

"Can't sleep?" Lorne jogged to catch up to him.

John winced. "Not exactly."

"I was heading to grab a drink if you want to join." He gestured up ahead of him toward the Officer's mess.

John raised an eyebrow but nodded. Lorne was a good guy, John couldn't have asked for a better second in command. They'd struck up a good working friendship, but they'd hardly spent time together outside of duties.

Lorne led the way into the mess, the smell of stale coffee hit the back of John's throat causing him to stop in his tracks. "Y'know, i'm not sure i can handle day old coffee."

Lorne carried on ahead towards the main serving counter. "I always forget that you were never based here before joining Atlantis." He had a knowing smirk plastered on his face. No one else was in the mess, but instead of heading to the stale pots of coffee, Lorne slipped around the back of the serving area and knelt down. Curious John stepped forward, leaning to try to see what he was doing. He pulled back as Lorne reappeared with a pack of beers in his hand.

John nodded, impressed. "Now that I could do with."

Lorne chuckled and handed him a couple of cans. They walked over to a table in the back, pulling out the chairs to sit down. "The mess staff keep these back here for when you've come back from a particularly rough mission- i think we deserve this." He pulled on the tab and took a big gulp.

John opened his and followed suit. The beer felt cool running down his throat. He placed the can back down on the table and ran his thumb over the condensation on the outside of the can. "How are you doing. Really..." the question caught John off-guard. He looked up to see Lorne narrowing his eyes at him, watching his expression.

"I mean it sucks. You know that."

Lorne bobbed his head. "Probably more than you know." He took another sip. "I can't say it surprised me when she told me she was staying."John felt his whole body tense, he couldn't look up. Lorne shook the can in his hand. "this might help take the edge off, but it won't stop what you're feeling."

John tilted his head back draining his can and opened another. He knew he shouldn't ask, he should stand up and go back to his room. But he couldn't help it. "And what does?" It must've have been the lack of sleep messing with his brain. So much had happened between him and Riles, he'd almost forgotten that she'd been Lorne's girlfriend long before she'd been his.

The corner of Lorne's mouth twisted up slightly. "Honestly..." he tapped his fingers against his can. "You're not going to get over her." John eyes shifted uncomfortably to Lorne's. "You'll spend the rest of your life missing her, she's just that kind of girl." His fingers tensed and the can started crushing under the pressure. "But you'll learn to live with it. Because even though it stings like a bitch, it was worth it for the short time you had her."

That's when John realised. He could see the smallest hint of resentment, of bitterness in Lorne's face. It wasn't a coincidence that Lorne had been apart of the rescue team two years ago, he'd come for her. But she'd moved on, and although he'd made his peace with her, Lorne was telling him exactly how he'd felt when he'd realised they'd never be together.

The room suddenly felt cold, John had to repress a shudder. "I really should try and get some sleep." He took a large gulp of the beer and moved to stand up. "Thanks for the beer."

"Goodnight Colonel." Lorne lifted his beer up in the air.

He forced his legs to move. He couldn't go back to his room. Not after that. John scowled, draining the rest of his beer and threw the can into the nearest bin.

Soon enough he found himself standing in front of the doors for the control room. He wasn't even sure how he'd managed to get there. Even from outside he could hear voices, they sounded like they were coming in through a monitor. John hesitated for a moment, he wasn't sure if he even still had clearance to enter the control room, but he didn't care. He climbed the stairs to see O'Neill standing talking at a monitor with Richard Woolsey on it.

His heart clenched, Woolsey was checking in from Atlantis. John felt like he should leave, he wasn't sure if he wanted to hear this. "Ah Sheppard." O'Neill was looking over his shoulder and gestured for him to join him. "Woolsey was just finishing up. Apparently the Ancient's are very happy to be home and that's about it." O'Neill summarised, his face clearly unimpressed.

Woolsey opened and closed his mouth. "Negotiations are progressing, albeit slowly."

"Right." O'Neill gave on the technicians the cut signal. "Later." And the monitor went dark. John was still staring at it, he had just been able to catch a glimpse of the city in the background. "Sheppard." O'Neill drew him out of his day dream. "Follow me." He cocked his head towards the briefing room upstairs. John followed wordlessly up stairs and took a seat in one of the black chairs, facing the General. "Now, you're probably wondering why you haven't been re-assigned just yet."

John pulled his shoulders down and shuffled in his chair. "Yes sir."

"Well, we've been going back and forth about this. But decision has been made. We want you to lead SG-4."

John blinked, he wouldn't be leaving the SGC. "Thank you sir."

O'Neill smiled. "Try get some sleep. Your official orders will be here in the morning, then we'll be able to set you up with more permanent housing."

John gave him a hollow smile. "Yes sir." Then he stood up and walked out the door back to his quarters.

He couldn't decide if this was what he wanted. Of course he didn't want to give up going through the gate. But everything here reminded him of her. Even his room and clothes somehow still smelled like her.

John had gone through his fair share of breakups - even a divorce. But he'd always been able to see the end coming. Nancyhad been frustrated for months that he was never home, and could never tell her where he was. The last few months of their marriage they'd barely spoken to each other and even though it hurt, he couldn't say he was surprised when she'd told him she was leaving. With Riles, he should have seen it. He knew her better than anyone, at least he thought he did.

He thought back to Lorne's words. Maybe he was right.

Sighing he sat back down onto his bed, pulling his shirt off and throwing it at his dufflebag. He was about to unbuckle his belt, when a small metal rattle stopped him as his shirt hit the bag. He couldn't think of anything inside that could be responsible. Curious, he stood up and picked up the bag, giving it a shake. Again he heard the soft clicking of metal.

Tipping the bag over, he emptied the contents of it onto the bed. More clothes fell out along with a silver set of dog tags. His stomach lurched as he delicately picked up the tags, already knowing what he'd find engraved onto them.

 _Capt. Alice Riley_

 _A-_

 _12-687-295_

He read the engraving over and over again. A swell of emotions surged within him; anger, grief, regret and sadness. Clenching his fist around the tags he launched them at the wall, letting out a frustrated shout.

How could she do this? After everything they'd been through, she'd said she couldn't see a future with him. It felt like he was missing something, some crucial piece of the puzzle. The reason she'd had that anxiety attack back in the restaurant, the reason she'd been trying to pull herself away from him. He didn't understand.

But he couldn't let what Lorne said be true. He might never get the closure he needed, the answers why. So he had to let her go, or it was going to break him.

 _ **Two months later**_

John sat on a bed in the infirmary, his team had just visited one of the villages that had been recovering from the Prior's plague. As protocol, his team now had to report in for standard medical screenings.

General Landry had been kind enough to allow John to pick his own teammates, but so far he'd burned through the entire candidate pool and still wasn't happy. They either lacked training, were too ruthless or just plain boring. John knew the General was losing patience and soon enough he'd be assigned a team whether he approved of them or not.

"What we in for today then, eh?" Beckett's soft Scottish voice sounded behind him.

"Just the usual, but I was thinking a bit more off the top this time." He smiled sarcastically at the Doc and patted the top of his head.

Beckett smirked and just shook his head slightly and looked down at his chart. "Sorry Colonel, I'm not brave enough to touch that mop of yours."

"Heyyy…" John mock protested.

"Shall we just stick to the routine tests this time?" Beckett raised an eyebrow at his humour.

John just shrugged and his eyes drifted around the infirmary. Beckett was one of the few former expedition members that he saw on a regular basis, Lorne had been reassigned as leader of SG-6 and Rodney had left to head up his own research at Area 51, though they still spoke every other day.

The SGC ran like a well oiled clocked, everyone here had been here and doing this for years now. The biggest difference he found between the operations of the two bases, was that at the end of the day, everyone packed up and left the base. Returning to their normal day to day lives outside of the program. It had been a shock not to be living, breathing and working alongside non-stop with his colleagues. John found himself missing his daily lunches with Ronon, and his sparring sessions with Teyla. Hell, he even missed kicking Rodney's ass at chess.

John had been provided with military housing outside of the base, a small two bedroom flat in the outskirts of the town. However, John spent as little time there as possible. Outside of Rodney, Beckett and to some degree Lorne, he didn't have any friends. Not that he was looking for any, he'd never been good at personal relationships so keeping the amount he had to a minimum suited him just fine.

Colonel Mitchell, leader of SG-1, seemed like a good man and had invited John to join him and SG-1 occasionally when they were hanging out. But hanging around such a close knit team just reminded him of what he'd lost, so he'd politely declined.

The infirmary was quiet, Doctor Lam was was checking over one of his other team members but otherwise nurses, mulled about checking equipment and writing reports. One pretty blonde nurse kept glancing over at John, he'd noticed her in here before, her name was Sasha. She always tried to make sure she was the one treating him, or if, like this time, someone else had beaten her to it, she'd always stop him for a quick chat before he left.

His hand drifted over to his pocket, dipping his fingers inside to feel the cool metal of Riles' dog tags. At first he'd been reluctant to ever look at them, he'd even tried to throw them away. But every time, he'd wake up in the middle of the night fish them out of the bin and put them back on his nightstand. And every morning he'd put them into his pocket, carrying them with him on every mission.

He'd told himself he'd moved on, that her absence didn't haunt him anymore. So he'd encouraged Sasha's attraction, returning her gazes, always indulging her small talk. Realistically she probably expected him to ask her put, but that wasn't going to happen. He wasn't really the type to have just a casual relationship, at least he had to feel some connection towards the woman. Which in this case he felt nothing. All his mind would think about was Riles. How she was millions of miles away and the likelihood of seeing her again slim.

"Alright. You're all good Colonel." Beckett pulled the blood pressure sleeve of his arm.

John jumped down off the bed and clapped Beckett on the shoulder, before shrugging his jacket back on. "Thanks Doc."

Today, he didn't stop to talk to Sasha. Instead he headed straight for the elevator, craving to get in his car and just drive. Once again he reminded himself of the pain Riles' had caused him. He owed her nothing, and it was time for him to get that into his head. She didn't want him.

 _ **Five months later**_

John stepped through the Gate he had Wallace leaning on his shoulder, grunting in pain. "Get your damned weight off your foot, you'll be fine." John tried not to roll his eyes. He'd been in a bad mood the moment he'd woken up this morning and this mission had done nothing to lift his spirit.

As soon as he reached the bottom of the ramp the medics appeared and took Wallace off him. About time, he thought.

General Landry walked out from the corridor. "Tell me you didn't engage the Ori, Colonel."

"We didn't engage the Ori, sir." John twisted around to gesture to another member of his team behind him. "Bambus here was inspecting some curious fauna when he discovered the ground underneath him wasn't stable. He fell twenty feet into a babbling brook." He twisted back and pointed to Wallace, who was now being led away by the medics. "Wallace there was trying to help him get back up when he lost _his_ footing and broke his ankle." John unzipped his tac vest and started heading for the armoury.

Landry followed him. "I see."

"Never thought I'd miss Rodney McKay being a member of my team!" John quipped sarcastically.

Landry chuckled. "Well, chemistry doesn't happen overnight. We'll debrief as soon as Wallace is out of the Infirmary." He clapped him on the back and turned back towards the control room.

"Yes, sir." John didn't even bother saluting. The bulkhead to the gateroom was still open. John didn't pause as he heard it dialling in behind him, mostly likely it was just another team checking in.

"Hold on, Colonel. You may get a kick out of this." Landry called back to him. John pivoted around. "This should be General O'Neill on his scheduled check-in from Atlantis."

This was the first he'd heard O'Neill had gone back. "He went back, sir?"

"Woolsey needed a little back-up. Apparently the Ancients find him a bit trying." He chuckled, John gave him a tight smile. "Imagine that!"

John followed a few steps behind Landry, entering the control room just as the gate activated and the monitor came to life.

O'Neill's face filled the screen. "General!" He said cheerily.

"General!" Landry greeted back.

O'Neill squinted at the screen. "Is that Sheppard there with you?"

John swallowed. "Yes, sir."

Then Richard Woolsey appeared on the screen. "Talks are proceeding at an acceptable pace; but the real news is that the Pegasus Replicators are heading back to Atlantis to make another run at the city."

John felt his heart jump. "They are?"

O'Neill made an over exaggerated gesture around him. "No-one here seems to be that worried about it."

Landry frowned. "Why not?"

"They're Ancients!" O'Neill made some more animated gestures.

Woolsey gave O'Neill a side glance and cleared his throat. "Apparently these Replicators have a law in their base code that makes it impossible for them to harm their creators."

John got it. "And they're expecting to find _us."_

Woolsey had a grim expression. O'Neill focused on John. "According to Helia, they're gonna run into some kinda nasty surprise."

"So you can pass it on to Doctor McKay that if you and he hadn't rescued the Ancients and returned Atlantis to their care ..." Woolsey started.

John bopped his head. "... I'd have lost the city anyway." Though he was sure it wouldn't have come to that.

"Right. Well, we should get back to our talks ... and talks and talks. O'Neill out." O'Neill looked around and then the gate shut down.

John pursed his lips turning to Landry. He wasn't going to miss his chance. "Sir, I'd be happy to talk to you more about these Replicator guys."

"Naah, sounds like they've got everything under control." And he headed up towards his office.

John started at the gate longingly. "Yes, sir ... I guess they do."

He sighed and went through the motions of removing his off-world gear.

Once he'd returned all his gear to the proper place he headed for his room. He lifted his watch, Rodney should be calling any minute. Out of all the Atlantis crew - that had returned to Earth - Rodney was the only one he'd actively kept in touch with. He'd tried to stay in touch with Elizabeth, but she'd dropped off the grid soon after they got back. He assumed she had already been offered a new job and was off negotiating the next Geneva Convention.

John dropped into his office chair, kicking his feet up onto the desk and leaning back. He picked up one of the darts on his desk. He twirled it inbetween his fingers as he waited.

As soon as the phone rang John clicked on the speaker. "Hey Rodney."

"Hey." John didn't need to be there to know Rodney was pouting.

John threw the dart across the room at a dart board he'd stuck on the wall. He missed...badly.

"I hate it here." Rodney moaned.

John threw another dart. "How's that possible?"

"It's true."

"Look, they gave you everything you wanted: your own lab ..."

"Yeah, it's too big."

"... hand-picked assistants ..." he threw another dart.

"Yeah, sycophants, every one of them."

"... even your own choice of projects."

"Well, _that's_ not true." Rodney scoffed.

John grimaced, it was the same assignment he'd been denied. "Well, _other_ than going back to Atlantis."

Rodney sighed. "You know, the truth is, I ..." he trailed off.

John looked at the phone suspiciously. "What?"

"I don't - I don't wanna use the term "lonely," but, uh, there are certain people who ... I miss."

John's stomach clenched, but he tried to ignore it. "Me?"

"You?! You I'm talking to on the phone right now and having dinner with tomorrow, so not so much, but other people - people who I may never see again, Ali-" Rodney stopped. John took in a breath. Rodney stuttered. "Li- Like, even Elizabeth - she hasn't returned any of my calls."

John dropped the last dart. "I know what you mean." He managed to say, he dragged his hand up to rub his face.

Rodney sighed again. "Hey - at least you still get to go offworld with a team of your own."

John let out a harsh laugh. "Oh yeah, the best and the brightest! Alright, see you tomorrow night."

"Yeah, wouldn't miss it. Hey, you know, I ..."

John reached over and hit the end call button. He dropped his feet off the table, allowing them to slam down onto the ground. He groaned, he'd been trying to move on.

He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath. Every day for the last five months he got up and tried to put it past him. Her face, her smell and her laugh. But every night, time after time, she was the starring role in every nightmare.

In the five months they'd been separated he'd heard nothing from her or Teyla and Ronon. Not that he'd expected he would, she was carving a new path. One that didn't involve him. Though his mind couldn't help toying with that uncertainty. His nightmares covered every possible scenario he could imagine; her alone, being culled by the Wraith.

The worst one's weren't graphic though. Last night was particularly bad, he'd seen her next to him in his bed. It had been so real when he'd woken up he reached out to touch her, only to grab at the cold and empty spot next to him.

No one would mention her near him. Lorne hadn't said anything since the night five months ago. John knew why they didn't want to talk about her in front of him, but it was beginning to feel like she never even existed in the first place. The only thing he had to remember her was the pain in his chest.

—-

John put on his jacket, stopping to look at himself in the mirror. He'd changed out of his uniform, as Rodney had told him on more than one occasion it wasn't appropriate dinner wear. He was wearing jeans, a light blue shirt and black blazer.

He grabbed his ID and keys off the side table and grabbed the handle of his door. Pausing to look at the dog tags hanging up next to his keys. Briefly he reached out and brushed his fingers past them. He'd finally stopped taking them with him, but he'd still been unable to throw them away. Sighing he pulled his hand back and headed out the door.

John left the base and got into the taxi that was waiting out front.

When he got to the restaurant he could already see Rodney sat at the table, but what surprised him was seeing Carson and Elizabeth sitting down with him.

John nodded at the waitress and headed straight for the table, putting a smile on his face. "Well isn't this a surprise."

Everyone at the table stood up and greeted him, kisses and hugs were exchanged.

"Sorry a bit of a last minute addition." Rodney lifted his glass up to the table.

A beer already sat in John's setting, Rodney must have ordered ahead for him. John grabbed the bottle and joined the toast.

It wasn't much of a surprise seeing Carson, as he also worked on base at the SGC. But he'd not seen or heard from Elizabeth in months.

The meal overall was pleasant, they caught up on the things they'd been doing - careful about what they said. Until dessert the chat had mostly focused on their new lives, no one mentioned Atlantis.

However, as the sweet cakes were set in front of them, the conversation turned to old friends. "Do you know where most people went?" Rodney took a bite out of his dessert.

"A few of the marines and air force got re-assigned within the programme." John said, looking down at his dessert distastefully.

"Most of the scientists left after we got back. I haven't heard much from them." Rodney offered.

"Guess that's not surprising. What about Woolsey and Teyla any word from them?" Elizabeth hadn't touched her dessert yet.

Everyone looked at John. "Woolsey reports in every week, we've not heard anything from Teyla." A moment of tense silence filled the air. "Y'know who i did see the other day. Lt. Cadmen." He didn't want to talk about Atlantis or Teyla. "You should call her." John tapped his spoon against his plate

The mood switched instantly. Rodney nodded, his mouth full of cake. "Mmm."

Carson's eyes went wide. "Who, Cadman?"

Elizabeth grinned. "You guys _did_ make a cute couple."

Carson shook his head. "It didn't work out. May have something to do with our first kiss being through Rodney!" He glared at Rodney accusingly.

A sour look twisted Rodney's face. "Oh, I thought we made a solemn vow never to speak of that again!"

John grinned at the memory. Carson gave Rodney a sly smile. "I remember no such thing!"

Elizabeth chuckled and looked down at her wrist. "You know what? It's getting late."

John raised an eyebrow. "Since when do _you_ sleep?"

"Since I got back. I've got a lot of catching up to do. But it's been lovely seeing all of you again." She put a hand on Carson's arm. "Thank you for getting me out."

John lifted his bottle. "No, we should thank _you_. You're taking us to dinner, right?"

Elizabeth stood up. "Cheeky!"

Before he could retort his phone started ringing, buzzing against the table. John narrowed his eyes and sae the number was blocked. "Sheppard."

Beside him Rodney's and Elizabeth's phone started ringing. They exchanged looks and answered theirs.

"Colonel. Please report back to base immediately there is a situation developing. It's Atlantis." John felt his face pale at the man's words.

"I'll be right there." He shut the phone.

"I didn't bring my bloody cellphone with me. What's happening?" Carson looked anxiously between them.

"We need to go." He was on his feet and heading out of the restaurant.

It took them about 20 minutes to get back and clear base security. They headed straight for the briefing room, Landry was sat waiting for them.

"We got this data burst about twenty minutes ago." He activated a remote control and a recording begins to play on the wall screen. General O'Neill appeared on the screen, broadcasting from Atlantis' Control Room. The recording is poor and filled with static and there are several moments when the image died completely.

"Atlantis is under attack from Replicators. Somehow they figured out how to override their programming. The Ancients were taken off guard and have lost most of the city already." O'Neill yelled into the camera.

Woolsey, standing behind him, turned to something off camera and fired a pistol at it several times. John felt himself twitch at each shot. His fingers gripped the arm of the chair.

"Request immediate evacuation!" O'Neill looked over his shoulder in the direction Woolsey had been firing.

"They're coming!"

Then the video ended leaving a black screen. "They never made it to the Gate." His face was grim. "I was informed they had a law written into their base code that made it impossible for them to harm the Ancients. How the hell did this happen?"

Elizabeth and John both leaned forward on their chairs over to Rodney. Rodney was fidgeting nervously. "It is remotely possible that in trying to rewrite Niam's base code, Alice and I...we may have opened the door for them to make other changes."

" _You_ did this?!"

Elizabeth glanced between them. "At the time we thought it was the only possible way to save the city."

John held his hand up. "How it happened doesn't matter. They may have changed it on their own. The question is: how do we fix it?"

Landry looked like he had more he wanted to say to Rodney, but he took in a breath and focused on John. "That's why I called you in. I have my orders. The _Daedalus_ is already on the way. Now, what I need from you is ..." He clicked his remote control again and a schematic of Atlantis appears on the screen. "... what's the best way to get a nuke past the shield?"

John couldn't believe it.

Carson's mouth was open. "Well, _I_ have no idea."

Landry didn't even glance over to him. "I didn't call you in, Doctor."

"You're going to use nuclear weapons on Atlantis?" Elizabeth was just as shocked.

"It's the gateway to Earth." Landry said simply.

Rodney threw his hands towards the gate. "And we have an iris!"

"Yes, we do, but thanks to your Intergalactic Gate Bridge, all they have to do is rewrite your macro and they can come out anywhere in the Milky Way."

"Yeah, but those macros are very complicated."

Landry slammed his hand down on the table, making Rodney jump _. "They_ are very complicated, Doctor McKay. They just rewrote their own damned base code! I think they can handle it."

John swallowed. "Sir, General O'Neill and Woolsey may still be alive. Now, I know the city like the back of my hand. Just give me sixty marines and some of Colonel Carter's new, um ..." he clicked his fingers at Rodney.

" ... Anti-Replicator weapons."

"Yeah, _those_ things."

Landry shook his head. "I'm sorry, Colonel. I have standing orders. They happen to be _General O'Neill's_ standing orders. The _Daedalus_ will be there in a little under four days. Now, how do I get a nuke past their shield?"

—

John was filled with dread, his mind was working through a million different scenarios. If the replicators found out about Earth it would be bad, but more immediate, what would they do if they found out about Riles.

The replicators had a score to settle with his team, Rodney and Riles most of all.

John sat in his office chair, barely listening to the conversations around.

Carson paced the room. "Now, those Replicator thingamyjiggies you're talkin' about ..."

John grimaced. "Let's just call 'em A. ."

"They're energy weapons. They disrupt the link between the nanites' cells. The Replicators literally fall apart when you fire on them." Rodney explained as if it was as common as a smartphone.

John scratched the back of his head. "You know, uh - hypothetically - Teyla and Ronon'd be more than willing to help ... if we asked." He couldn't say her name, but anything he could do - to see her again.

Elizabeth narrowed her eyes at him, she saw straight through him. But he could see her considering it. "We would need to gate into Atlantis. All they'd need to do to keep us out is activate the Gate's shield."

Rodney sat up straight. "Well, I did write a back door to the shield programme a couple of years ago when Kolya stormed the city, so ... I mean, it could hypothetically let us get into the Gateroom."

Elizabeth smiled. "General Landry was worried about the Replicators rewriting the Bridge macro to gate them somewhere else in the Milky Way. Does that mean _you_ could change the macro - take us somewhere else in Pegasus?"

John shared Elizabeth's smile. "Somewhere like, uh ... just talking here ... the Athosian settlement where Teyla and Ronon are?" Again he couldn't bring her to say her name.

Rodney was on his feet now. "We'd need a Jumper."

"... and some of those A. ." John added.

"... _and_ someone to make sure Landry doesn't close the iris on us." Elizabeth looked between them. "Hypothetically."

John felt his heart rate increasing. A small flare of hope ignited in his chest.

—

The plan came together quicker and easier than John thought possible. Before he knew it he was sat back in the cockpit of the jumper.

"You set?"

Rodney called from the rear compartment, he'd just finished uploading his new macro.

John did a quick check and awakened all the Jumper's systems. "Go for it."

He could hear the gate starting to dial from the hanger. Rodney ran in and the rear door clicked shut.

"OK, they'll be able to get through my hack pretty quickly." Rodney sat behind John.

John was already lifting the jumper off the floor and towards the silo. "It's alright - I don't need much time." He lowered the ship down until he was facing the open wormhole.

"Colonel Sheppard, stand down! That is a direct-"

He was glad he couldn't see the control room, otherwise he may have felt a bit of guilt. Contrary to some people's beliefs he didn't like going against orders. Especially of people he respected. But, John didn't want to hear the end of his sentence. He hit the accelerator and entered the wormhole.

Escaping the SGC had caused John's heart to race in his chest. Now felt like the complete opposite. John twitched anxiously as Rodney tapped on his laptop behind him.

Once again he opened up the long range scanners. He wasn't sure why, it wasn't like the SGC had another Jumper to send through after them, and the Daedalus was still a couple of weeks away from this position. He just needed something to occupy his thoughts.

"My turtles!"

John almost jumped at Carson's outburst. He twisted his head around slowly, narrowing his eyes.

"What?" Elizabeth asked.

"I just bought some wee baby turtles and no-one knows to feed them."

Elizabeth and John exchanged a look. John twisted back around in his seat.

"Well, turtles are pretty hardy. I'm sure they'll be fine." He heard Elizabeth trying to comfort him.

"And they make good soup." John added.

"I figured I'm back for good so I might as well get a pet. I'm allergic to cats and, well, I'm at work too long to be fair to a dog, so I went with turtles. I've probably killed them." Carson continued.

John groaned. "Any time now, McKay!"

"Oh, trust me, I am going as fast as I can!" Rodney replied curtly.

"Poor little buggers."

John frowned at the display. "The Milky Way Gate just activated." He looked over his shoulder at Rodney. "Did _you_ do that?"

John got his answer as Landry's face appeared on the HUD. "Colonel Sheppard. I'm going to assume that you're still at the midway station waiting for Doctor McKay to rewrite his macro. I understand what you're doing, Colonel. Hell, I'll even call it brave." He pulled down his shoulders and tensed his body. "But if you don't turn that ship around immediately and come back to the S.G.C., I'll see to it personally that your career in the military is-"

John slammed his hand down on the dash, shutting down their receiver. Landry's face disappeared. He grimaced and could feel the others staring at him. John just shrugged. "That way I won't know what he was gonna say."

He knew this would most likely be a one way ticket. If they didn't manage to rescue O'Neill and Woolsey or take back Atlantis then he had no plans to return to Earth.

Rodney's console beeped, bringing John out of his thoughts. "OK. OK, I've got it."

John gave everyone a glance. "Alright. Last chance to change our minds." No one moved or said anything. "Alright. Let's do it."

They activated the gate and John took in a steadying breath. After five months he was finally going to see her again. The dog tags he'd managed to quickly grab before leaving suddenly felt heavier in his vest pocket. He wasn't sure if he was excited, nervous or scared.

Out of habit the second they flew through the gate onto New Athos, John cloaked the ship. On the HUD he could see a mass life signs gathered around a settlement about a mile from the gate.

No-one spoke as he landed the Jumper just on the outskirts. "Let's go." He took the small control off the wall and stuffed it into his vest - he didn't want to risk losing the jumper.

Together they walked through the forest and towards the flickering lights of the settlement. John thought his pace would increase as they got closer, but he found each step was harder than the last. Up ahead he could see two people walking together, a man and a woman. John didn't recognise the man, but he'd know her from a mile away - Teyla.

John wasn't sure what he was going to say. A simple hi didn't seem to really suffice, so he said the first thing that came to his head. "That smells great." Teyla turned back in surprise as John, Elizabeth, Carson and Rodney walked out of the trees, smiling at them. "Hope you saved some for us."

Teyla was beaming at them. "John! It's wonderful to see you - all of you!"

"And you." Elizabeth stepped forward to embrace their friend.

John pointed to the pot roasting over the fire. "We missed that - whatever that is."

Teyla laughed at him, as she greeted the others. John kept his hands resting over the back of his gun. When she got to him the smile had faded. "What's going on?" She looked back at the other's as if suddenly realising all of their tense expressions.

"Is there somewhere we can talk?" John didn't want to explain stood out in the open.

Teyla seemed to hesitate a second. "Of course." Then she turned back to the man she'd been walking with, John hadn't even noticed he was still there. Quietly she whispered into his ear. John strained his ears trying to catch her words. Whatever she'd asked him to do, the man didn't look pleased. But he nodded, casting a distrustful look at them and headed towards the gate.

Teyla took in a breath, gesturing towards a small house. "Please. This way."

John followed behind her, holding the cloth door open for the others behind him. He'd almost expected Riles to be waiting in the room with Ronon. But there was no sign of either of them. "Would you like some tea or water?" Teyla fidgeted, she seemed apprehensive. But John thought it was just his imagination.

"No thanks. I'm afraid we're not here for just a reunion." John tensed his jaw. "Where are Ronon and Riles?" It was the first time he's said her name out loud in months. Teyla seemed to pale slightly, now John was sure she was nervous. "Teyla?"

She swallowed. "They should be back soon." John narrowed his eyes, it was obvious she was leaving something out. "Please sit. They shouldn't be too long."

All kinds of scenarios started running through his head. Some of them familiar nightmares he'd seen a thousand times before.

Everyone else moved to join Teyla at the table she'd now sat down at. "John." Elizabeth said softly, a subtle request for him to join them and wait. Patiently.

John swallowed and sat. The others asked questions about Teyla, her people and the state of the galaxy. Teyla did her best to answer, but John could tell some of her replies were carefully guarded - like she didn't want to say too much. About thirty minutes had passed and John was ready to stand up and demand an answer. When the man who'd been walking outside with Teyla came running in. He slowed his pace as he approached the table and leaned down to whisper in her ear. This time it was quiet enough for John to hear, he watched his lips move as he said ' _They're back.'_

John felt his whole body stiffen. There was no doubt who the man was talking about. Ronon and Riles were back, from where John had no clue. But he was going to find out.

Teyla thanked the man and stood up.

"Maybe if we went for a different approach next time. They already know were coming so we could-"

John heard her voice drifting in from outside, immediately his throat constricted. He heard the flap of the door being pulled back and heavy footsteps entering behind him. But he was frozen on the spot.

"What the- What are you doing here?!" Her voice stammered.

Rodney and Carson were up on their feet rushing to greet the two newcomers. Elizabeth followed a bit slower. But John was still rooted in his seat. His emotions surged in his chest, but he still didn't know how to feel. A warm hand gripped his, he jumped before realising it was Teyla's. She had moved around the table to stand beside him. Giving him a reassuring smile she leaned down to put her mouth next to his ear. "There will be time to figure things out later."

John pursed his lips, she was right. He closed his eyes and forced all the emotions surging through him back into a small recess. Then he stood up and turned around. Rodney was being lifted into the air by a grinning Ronon and Riles was being hugged by Carson.

Seeing her still had the same effect on him as it always did. All reason seemed to exit his brain and all he wanted to do was close the distance between them and kiss her. But he didn't, in fact he could barely move. She hadn't changed much, her hair was longer and she looked a bit thiner, but overall nothing he didn't expect. The biggest surprise was what she was wearing. Riles was there standing greeting his team in a Genii military uniform. "What are you wearing?" He knew it shouldn't have been his first words to her in almost six months, but they'd left his mouth before he could think.

Her posture seemed to stiffen and the joy in her eyes died as she slowly glanced over to look at John. It looked as though she hadn't noticed him until now, and she looked like she'd seen a ghost.

She didn't answer his question as Carson brought her into another tight bear hug. "We've missed you so much lass."

She seemed to wince in pain, as Carson's arms tightened around her. But in the blink of an eye she seemed to regain herself. Her lips pulled up into a smile. "I missed you too, but i don't understand. What are you doing here?" She glanced at everyone except him.

"Yes. I believe it's time you told us." Teyla crossed her arms across her chest. The happy atmosphere created by the reunions vanished.

Elizabeth nodded solemnly, and started explaining what had happened over the past day on Atlantis and Earth. John added in small bits when Elizabeth glanced at him, seemingly wanting to give him a chance to be included.

Rodney started unpacking the Anti-Replicator Guns (ARGs), handing them to Ronon and Riles. "They emit a directional energy beam that disrupts the connection between nanites."

Ronon took the gun suspiciously. "Not what I asked."

"Uh, yes. They work good." Rodney looked like the words had left a bitter taste in his mouth.

"Good." Ronon lifted the gun and sights along it. "So you need us because we know our way around the city?" He glanced slyly between John and Riles, though thankfully she didn't seem to notice.

"I need you because you're part of our team." John gave him a glare, telling him silently to drop the issue.

"There's probably hundreds if not thousands of Replicators on Atlantis by now." Riles clicked the magazine out of ARG, nodding in admiration.

"We've got a plan - a good one. I wouldn't ask you to come with us if I didn't think we could do it." John noticed she still wouldn't meet his eye.

"Also, General O'Neill and Richard Woolsey were both on Atlantis when the Replicators attacked. There's a chance they're still alive." Elizabeth added.

"I'll be damned if I'm gonna let a bunch of Replicators take our home away from us. So - you with us?" John glanced at all of them.

Ronon and Riles exchanged a quick glance then turned to Teyla. It was clear Teyla had become the defacto leader in John's absence. Teyla returned their look, then they all smiled at John. He knew they wouldn't refuse, and he knew Riles' smile had nothing to do with him. But he still couldn't help the butterflies that started in his chest when she beamed at him.


	34. The Return: Part 4

**A/N This story is now officially a year old! So an anniversary present here is a surprise chapter drop!**

 **I have to say when I started this, I never imagined I'd still be writing this a year on. But every chapter I have felt myself grow and develop as a writer and I hope you have enjoyed reading this as much as i've enjoyed writing.**

 **For those who are afraid I'm going to make John and Alice get back together easily, you have nothing to worry about. They have both suffered because of the break up and it's going to take some time and choice words to heal those wounds.**

 **Enjoy the chapter!**

 **Alice POV**

The last thing she'd expected when they'd gotten Teyla's emergency call was that John would be waiting for her. When she'd first stepped through that tent and seen the smiling faces of her friends, she couldn't hide the disappointment that he wasn't there. Then she'd heard him.

At first she thought she might've imagined it, but then she saw him, and instead of joy and relief that she'd expected to feel, all she'd felt was regret and an overwhelming sense of guilt and fear twisting her stomach into a tight knot.

Fear that he had moved on. Of what he thought of her, how he would react to her.

His first words momentarily stunned her, as she completely forgotten she was even wearing her Genii uniform. It had become so familiar to her. Though the first time she'd ever put it on she'd imagined John saying those exact words in her head.

Her eyes drank in his figure as he stood before her. His hair was unruly and looked like he'd been running his hands through it in frustration. His eyes were dim, with dark shadows underneath, there was an underlying fury to them that Alice knew was directed at her. She had to tense every muscle in her body to stop herself from running straight into his arms.

It clearly wasn't the time. He'd not come for her. They'd come back to save Atlantis from the replicators. She had to keep her wits about her, and they could worry about emotions later. At least that's what she told herself.

John and the others headed back to the jumper, whilst Alice, Ronon and Teyla geared up. As soon as she left Teyla's tent she let out a large breath and her knees buckled, causing her to drop down into a squat. Keeping her head low she tried to take in a few small breaths. She closed her eyes and gave herself to the count of five. Before sniffling and forcing herself back to her feet.

"You going to be okay with this?" Ronon's deep voice rumbled next to her.

Whilst she may never have said it, both Teyla and Ronon knew how much she'd struggled. Alice wiped her sleeve across her face and steeled her voice. "We've got a job to do. Everything else..." she pursed her lips. "Everything else can come later."

Alice glanced over to meet Ronon's gaze, lifting her chin to show him she could do this. They'd spent enough time together over the past few months to read each other easily. He held her gaze for a moment before giving her the slightest nod of her head. "If it's too much..."

She bobbed her head quickly. "I'll let you know. Meet you back here in five." Then she swivelled and headed for her tent.

She didn't even wait until she was inside before stripping off the Genii jacket. Throwing it across the room, then lunging for her dufflebag ripping out a set of her old mission BDUs.

Of course the day John returned to the settlement she had to be wearing a Genii uniform. Her heart started fluttering as she thought about John. He was here, just like she'd dreamt for the past five months. And yet, she had no idea what to say to him.

She shook her head, pulling on the standard SG team uniform. They had bigger things to worry about right now, she couldn't afford to be distracted.

This mission wasn't going to be easy. Even with Colonel Carter's ARGs. She zipped up the jacket and pulled her hair up into a ponytail. Taking a last glance around her makeshift home, she stepped out the door back to meet Teyla and Ronon.

Quickly they ran to the Jumper. John was already sat in the pilot's chair, powering up. He closed the rear hatch as Alice stepped inside.

Rodney gave her a warm smile and handed her a datapad. She took it gratefully, and placed it inside her bag. Ronon pulled P90s down from the storage belts and handed one to her and another to Teyla. She murmured a thanks and headed for the cockpit.

Elizabeth and Carson were sat in the backseats, with John in the pilot's seat leaving the only empty spot in the co-pilot's seat. Before the others could hopefully notice she ducked her head back into the rear compartment and took a seat on the bench.

"Alright." Rodney disconnected his tablet from a control panel and headed into the cockpit. "We're ready."

Alice double checked all her equipment. She had her ARG, P90 and a side arm, as well as her former tac vest. It felt good to be suited back up in her old uniform, the Genii one was no where near as practical or comfortable.

The Jumper started rumbling under her feet, Alice let her head drop back against the wall of the Jumper. Even though they were heading off into another potentially fatal mission, for the first time in months she felt like she was back home. The Jumper rose off the ground and she heard the sound of the gate dialling.

"That's confirmation. The Gate shield has lowered." She heard Rodney call out.

Then she felt the familiar chill of entering the Stargate. The second they came out she could hear the replicators weapon's hitting the shield.

Curious, she stood up in the doorway between the two compartments, looking out the windshield. A couple of replicators were standing in front of them firing, and more were joining. Thankfully the shield seemed to be doing its job.

John hit the comms button. "Authentication code Alpha Six Delta Charlie Niner. General O'Neill, Woolsey - do you copy?"

They all held their breath. "Sheppard? Is that you?" O'Neill's voice came through the Jumper's speakers.

"Yes, sir. I need to know if you're anywhere near Stargate Operations."

"No, we're not."

"That's good. Can't talk right now, sir. I'll get back to you in a couple of hours. Sheppard out." He hit the button again and turned to Rodney. "Drop the package."

Rodney tapped a few keys. "Package is ... away."

"Hold on."

Alice braced herself against the doors as John slammed the jumper back through the wall of the control tower.

They continued back a safe distance until they saw the explosion that took out the top third of the main spire.

"That went well." Alice stared out the window at the smoke billowing. After five months away she couldn't say that blowing the top of the control tower was what she wanted to see. But knowing the replicators they only had a few hours before it was back to its former glory.

John opened the HUD and flew the jumper up towards the upper atmosphere.

"It's good to be back - however briefly." Rodney muttered.

Alice sat back down in the rear compartment. Keeping her distance from the others, but mostly John.

"I feel like I'm gonna be ill." Alice peered around the door to see Carson looking a bit green and holding a bag. She gave him a sympathetic smile.

Ronon took her vacated position in the doorway, he looked at Carson sternly. "Don't be."

Elizabeth leaned over from the opposite seat, and placed a hand on Carson's knee. "Alright, just take some deep breaths, Carson."

"Should we not have informed General O'Neill of our plan?" Teyla moved through the cabin past Ronon and into the cockpit.

"He knows we're here. We'll contact him again as soon as we get closer to the city." John said.

Rodney glanced at John nervously. "Well, that is gonna be easier said than done. With all those hits we took, it's gonna be impossible for me to convert the shield back to a cloak."

"And by "impossible," you mean ..." John said, his eyes fixed on the empty space in front of them.

"I mean "not possible." What do you think I mean?"

John shrugged. "Well, hopefully we took out the sensors when we blew the tower."

"Well, you said they could rebuild remarkably fast. How long before they restore critical systems?" Elizabeth leaned forward.

Alice crossed her arms over her chest. "A couple of hours, at most."

"Plus the painting and redecorating." John muttered sarcastically.

Rodney waggled his finger in the air. "If we time this right, this could work to our advantage."

The HUD sensors beeped and displayed the screen for the proximity sensors. "Got him! Right where we left him!"

Rodney checked the readings on his laptop. "That's him." Alice stood up, moving into the cockpit as they approached the deactivated replicator.

"Who else would it be?" Ronon asked sarcastically.

Rodney didn't look at him. "True. His power levels are barely registering. It's no wonder the Replicators didn't find him."

"Alright, I'll swing around and pick him up." He twisted his neck to look over his shoulder, his eyes meeting Alice's. "Watch yourselves - I'm closing the bulkhead."

Alice and Ronon squished into the cockpit as the bulkhead doors closed behind them. She watched as John expertly aligned the jumper up and the blinking dot representing the Replicator disappeared inside the Jumper. "Got him. Closing the rear hatch."

He stood up from the pilot's seat and looked at Alice, pulling his ARG out as he moved. "Take the seat."

Alice just moved forward, turning sideways to slip past John. Though with space as confined as it was, as she moved past him she could feel his breath on her as her chest pressed past his.

She sat down in the chair and tried to clear the fog that had come over her brain. She needed to focus or she'd kill them all. She was glad no one could see the blush that was creeping up her face. She cleared her throat. "The compartment's re-pressurised."

Alice looked back, watching John and Ronon aim the ARG's at the compartment as the opened the door. Carefully they headed in, with Rodney trailing behind them. John gave him the all clear and Rodney hesitantly kneeled down next to Niam. "OK. This is good. His power levels are minimal but not _too_ minimal. I'm fairly sure he doesn't have the juice to regain consciousness ..."

Alice kept them steady and monitored the long range sensors for any incoming craft. She wouldn't put it past the replicators to send out a squadron of drones or Jumpers to seek them out. Though hopefully they were too busy repairing the damage.

She heard Rodney talking in the cargo hold, but nothing she could make out. "Alright. I'll take us back." John's voice was clear as he walked back into the cockpit.

Alice stood up and slipped past him again. This time taking the co-pilot's seat.

"Why don't we do this from here?" Elizabeth asked from her seat, looking back at Rodney.

"Do what from here?" Rodney asked, his head down tapping his datapad.

"Render the Replicators helpless, Rodney? Remember the plan?"

"Of _course_ I remember the plan. It's my plan."

"Uh, actually, using Niam was Elizabeth's plan." John jumped in, bringing up the plans on the HUD.

"Thank you!" Elizabeth sighed exasperatedly.

"It was _mostly_ my plan."

Alice couldn't help but smile, it felt exactly like old times. She could tell Rodney hadn't changed at all in their time apart. She only half-listened to the rest of their squabbling. Instead opening a separate window on the HUD to monitor Atlantis' frequencies. Hopefully this would be able to tell her if they'd managed to get the sensors back online.

"Alright, we're about a mile out." John reported.

"The city is still dark." Alice double-checked her readings, but she couldn't see anything.

"OK, I'll start broadcasting the virus now, but, uh, we're gonna need to get closer than that." Rodney yelled from the back.

Suddenly, a peak appeared on Alice's sensors. "They've made us, we've got incoming drones!"

"McKay!" John shouted down the Jumper.

"We're still not close enough."

"Hang on!"

Alice gripped her chair as John swung the Jumper around in a hair pin turn trying to lose the drone. She couldn't have been more thankful for the Ancient's inertial dampeners - if they'd pulled that move in a F-16 their brains would be mush inside their skulls. They ducked and twisted between the towers and bridges of the city. Alice watched on the HUD as a few of the drones impacted the city. She winced at each impact.

"If we keep this up, there won't be much of a city left to save." Elizabeth called out.

John's face was tense and his temples knotted together in concentration. "I'll try to run the drones into your least favourite buildings. McKay!"

"It should be working." He yelled back.

"Well, it's _not_ working!"

"Look, if I give him any more power, he'll wake up and kill us all!"

"Sheppard can't keep this up forever." Alice didn't need to look to know Ronon was giving Rodney his patented glower.

Alice felt the ship nudge sharply to the left. A warning appeared on her screen. "Shields have been damaged." She warned him.

"Alright, I've had enough. I've got a different idea." John grunted and flew the Jumper back out of the city and straight down into the ocean.

Alice braced herself against the dash as they hit the water. As good as the inertial dampeners were, they couldn't completely absorb the full impact of hitting the water at the speed they were going.

The Jumper sank into the depths of the Lantean ocean. It was disconcerting to see nothing but water filling the screen, but she just reminded herself it was no different to being in space.

John checked his watch and then hit the comms button. "General O'Neill. Are you there, sir?"

"Yes, we're here. You're late."

John winced. "Sorry, sir. Had to go into space and pick up some ... frozen goods."

"Whatever. Where are you now?"

Alice leaned over the control panel, moving her face closer to the window so she could see the structure up ahead. "We're not exactly inside the city yet. We're headed toward an underwater Jumper Bay." John replied.

"Well, what we think _may_ be an underwater Jumper Bay." Elizabeth clarified.

"Is that Doctor Weir I hear?" O'Neill asked.

"Yes, General. It's good to hear your voice too." Alice looked over her shoulder to see Elizabeth smiling.

"I didn't say it was _good_ , Elizabeth." Alice watched the smile fade. "Please, don't be offended as I express my ... _surprise_ that Landry would send you on a mission like this."

Alice pursed her lips and turned around. She knew they didn't exactly have clearance, but John and Elizabeth hadn't had time to go fully into details about how they'd gotten here.

"Well, sir, General Landry didn't sanction this mission." Elizabeth said cautiously.

"So, am I to assume you are _not_ surrounded by heavily-armed S.G. teams and young strapping marines?" O'Neill quipped.

"You've got Colonel Sheppard, Ronon, Teyla, Riley, McKay, myself and Doctor Beckett." John wore an uncomfortable look.

"Ooh! Doctor Beckett, is it? Well, _I'm_ comforted."

Carson, who was sat behind Alice tapped her on the shoulder, and whispered in her ear. "What's that supposed to mean?"

Alice just shook her, she didn't know what to tell him.

"OK, ready to open the lock." Rodney pushed forward and placed his laptop ontop of the DHD pad.

"We've got a plan, sir ..." John turned to Alice and grimaced "... a good one."

"Yes, Colonel, I'm sure you do. But in the unlikely event you don't fail miserably, you're fired."

Alice knew she shouldn't but she couldn't help smile as John eyes widened sightly in fear. "Yes, sir. ... Look forward to that."

They approached the submerged doors. "Careful." Carson whispered quietly behind them.

"Thanks, Doc!" John said sarcastically. But Alice could see sweat beading on John's forehead as he flew them through the doors and landed the jumped in the flooded hanger.

"OK. Closing the outer door." Alice heard Rodney clicking on his laptop. She was staring around in awe at the bay. There were a couple of other jumpers sat submerged in the hanger. "Yes. Now, I just have to pressurise the compartment and we are ..." a small beep emitted from his laptop. "Huh?"

"What?" Alice glanced over her shoulder at him.

"It's not letting me do it."

Alice stood up to stand beside Rodney, looking over his shoulder at the laptop. He was trying again and again to activate the city's system, but he kept receiving the same error message.

Carson tapped Alice on the shoulder. "The water's not draining out."

"Yeah, excellent observation, thank you." Rodney said.

"It _is_ , however, draining in." Elizabeth's voice came from the cargo bay.

Alice and Rodney both looked up. She stepped away from the chair to see where Elizabeth was looking. A small amount of water was dripping down from the top of the bulkhead. Alice lifted her hand up to run it along the seam, closing her eyes she could feel small bumps indicating tiny fracture in the seal.

When she opened her eyes were open, John was standing in front of her looking up at the roof. "Well, guess we took some damage."

"The drones must've created micro-fractures in the seal. I can patch it, but it won't stop it." Alice dropped her hand to her side.

Rodney plopped back down into his chair. Holding his head in his heads. "I just wanna point out that this was _not_ my idea."

John's features tightened as he frowned. "You said, "Get us close to the city." This is pretty damned close!" He spread his hands out gesturing to the hanger.

Rodney lifted his head, flicking his hand put to the laptop. "And yet, no cigar!"

"Alright. Just open up the outer doors - I'll figure something else out." John turned away from his back towards the pilot's chair.

"Right." Rodney mumbled, turning to type on the laptop. Alice glanced around at the other members of their make-shift team. They all looked sightly paler as they exchanged looks. "Ohhhh ...dear." Everyone turned to look back at Rodney.

Alice bit down on the inside of her cheek. "What is it now?"

She tried not to kick the side of the bulkhead as Rodney explained they were now trapped inside the hanger. Her mind instantly started pulling out different scenarios, like firing a drone at the hanger doors. But given the confined quarters, they were likely to get themselves caught up in the shockwave. Her hands fidgeted at her side, a small water droplet splashed straight onto her nose. First things first, she thought, they had to stop the leak. It wouldn't help if when they did come up with a plan to be full of water. Everyone else seemed to be just as caught up in their own thoughts. A couple of times, she saw one or two of them open their mouths as though they were about to say something, but then quickly closed them again.

Alice wiped the droplet off her face and went to work. Pulling out the emergency supplies, trying to find anything she could use to plug the hole.

She reached up to pull down one of the larger yellow containers. "Let me help." John's hands shot out to grab the container. Alice flinched back and allowed John to pull it down onto the bench. She tucked a loose strand of hair behind her ear and waited for John to unclip the locks. She mumbled a quick thanks before grabbing out the duct tape and medical gauze. Before John had the chance to reply she'd turned back and started working on the patching the leak. Now wasn't the time to bring up her feelings. She reached up and closed her eyes, concentrating on pushing down all her emotions.

"There must be a manual override somewhere." Elizabeth finally broke the silence.

Alice opened her eyes, looking into the cockpit. Rodney had his face hidden in his hands. "In the Bay's Control Room, yes."

John put his hand on Alice's waist as he moved past her, sending small electrical tingles up her spine. "OK, I'll swim to it."

Rodney pulled his face up. "... which is sealed from the other side."

John's head dropped. "Of _course_ it is!"

"Perhaps General O'Neill can reach it." Teyla offered.

Rodney's face brightened slightly. "Good. OK, give me half an hour to get Niam to the right power level so we can do this."

Alice looked up at her make-shift patch job. "We don't have that long."

John's face twisted into a grimace. He grabbed the radio of his seat and held it up to his mouth. "General O'Neill? We're gonna need a favour."

Alice paced in the back of the jumper, twisting her fingers together as she listened to Rodney guiding O'Neill to the power switch. Water sloshed around her feet as she moved, he patch had slowed the leak, but they were still taking on water.

Finally, a loud creaking and what sounded like a drain being opened vibrated through the ship. Alice's head snapped up and she watched as John jumped out of his seat and headed back towards them.

Ronon tossed him an ARG, Alice pulled hers up from where it was hanging on her side. Checking it's power and ammo levels out of habit.

"Woolsey? ... Woolsey, come in." Rodney yelled into the radio.

John ran past Alice and hit the rear door button. "Something's wrong." Water dripped in from the top of the ship, but only small amounts. The room was mostly empty, only a few small puddles were dotted around. John stepped out on the ramp glancing around then, turned back to face them. "McKay - you stay here and reprogramme Niam. We're gonna go and meet General O'Neill and Woolsey, alright? We'll wait for your OK!"

He didn't wait for Rodney to answer, he jerked his head and disappeared around the side of the Jumper. Alice moved out, following closely behind him with Ronon on her side.

Now they were back in the city, they moved fast. Even though Alice knew no one had been this far down since they'd discovered the nanovirus a few years ago. But knowing the general layout of the city, it was easy for them to find where the entrance to the Jumper bay was.

But Alice couldn't believe her eyes when they came up to the hatch. Bullet casings littered the floor, and the walls were ridden with small caliber holes. But there was two things that immediately jumped out at her. "No blood, or bodies."

"They have been captured?" Teyla asked.

John crouched down and picked up a casing. "Yeah, looks like."

Alice stifled a groan. "Which means their minds will be probed for information any minute now."

John stood back up and exchanged a grim look with her. He clicked his radio and took a few steps away from the group, his back facing them. "McKay. Fire up that virus."

"I am working as fast as I can." Rodney replied grouchily.

"The Replicators have O'Neill and Woolsey." John's voice was strained.

Rodney sighed. "Unfortunately, that information can't make me work any faster."

Alice watched as John's shoulders slumped, then he turned back to them. He held up his gun towards the centre of the city. "This way."

John took point again. Ronon gestured for her, Teyla and Elizabeth to go ahead of him.

They didn't get far before John held up a fist telling them to stop. Rodney's voice cane through her ear piece. "Stand by. I've got his power levels about as high as I'm comfortable with. I'm gonna try to get him to ..."

Rodney's voice died, John looked back down the line at his team. Alice tapped her ear piece, but nothing was wrong with them.

"McKay? Come in, McKay." John whispered.

"Fall back to the Jumper! We're gonna need a new plan." He sounded terrified.

John looked around, they were close to the base of the main tower. Alice could tell he was hesitant to head back now, but the panic in Rodney's voice was clear. "Alright, head back." He ordered reluctantly.

Alice stayed put as the others moved past her. She held her hand out to touch John's arm as he passed her. "If the replicators really have got O'Neill and Plan A is a no go - then we need to move quickly before the replicators restore critical functions."

John stopped beside her, staring at her intently. "Which is why we need to come up with a new plan, and fast."

Alice grabbed his arm, as he tried to walk past her. "I can slow them down, but not from the Jumper. If i can get to one of the power distributors i can delay them at least another few hours. Trust me we're going to need that time."

"No. We all go back to the Jumper. We can't afford to let them capture anyone else." John said sternly, pulling his arm out of her grip. Alice swallowed, opening her mouth to argue. "Riles. No. I'm not losing you again!" He gestured in front of him, waiting for her to follow the others.

Her heart jumped at his words, so reluctantly she turned away from him and jogged to catch up with the others. The others hadn't gone far before they'd realised John and her weren't with them. John retook the lead as Alice fell in behind Ronon. They were almost back at the jumper bay, when Alice made up her mind. It had already been a good few hours since they'd destroyed the tower and knowing how quickly the replicators worked, they'd have internal sensors up any moment. This part of the city was dark and filled with a nest of different passageways and rooms. All she needed to do was slip into one of them and head back into the city. She knew the city better than anyone, and moving by herself would make it harder for her to get caught. She slowed her pace, putting a bit of distance between her and the group.

Everyone was so focused on getting back to the jumper they didn't notice when she slipped down a passageway and started running.

She estimated it would only take a couple minutes for Ronon to notice she wasn't behind her, and John would know what she was planning. But she needed to do this, they didn't stand a chance if the Asurans got the sensors back online.

Sure enough, within a few minutes John's voice sounded in her ear. "Riles! I told you to head back to the jumper." He was pissed.

She stopped moving, pressing her back up against a wall. Luckily there were no replicators around. "No plan will work if we don't shut down the sensors." She whispered quietly. "Trust me, I'll radio when it's done. Riley out." She turned off her mic and lowered the volume.

She could hear John shouting at her, but she ignored it. Without the others she was able to move even faster within the city. She decided to go for the main power conduit as that would cause the most damage, but it was at the base of the control tower. She doubted it would be unguarded as well. She rounded a corner and slowed her pace. The power room was just up ahead. So far, she hadn't seen any signs of the replicators. The door to the room was closed, but as Alice waved her hand over the controls the doors opened.

She entered the room with her ARG raised. But it was empty. This seemed strange, but maybe the Asuran's shared more traits with the Ancient's than they thought. They had to be arrogant if they didn't think Alice or her team would get here. Swinging the ARG over her shoulder on its strap, she dropped to her knees in front of the main distributor.

If she could cause a catastrophic overload, that should keep the replicators busy and more important offline for a good couple of hours. She set to work, flicking switches and re-routing critical systems. Once she was satisfied she'd channeled enough through a main system, she pulled out her datapad. In order for this to work she'd need to deactivate the failsafe and security measures the city automatically had in place to prevent overloads.

"Riles, come in." Her radio was turned down so low she barely heard John's voice.

"I'm almost done here." She replied in hushed tones.

John let out a small groan. "McKay said to wait, we've got a plan but we need you to shut down the critical systems on his signal."

"So my plan was smart after all." She knew taunting him was the last thing she should do, but she couldn't help it.

"Just be ready." He grunted.

"Alright, standing by." She stopped typing on her datapad. "Could you at least tell me what the plan is?"

"Aly, I need you to listen closely." Rodney had taken the radio off John, or more likely Alice thought John had handed it off to him.

She listened intently to Rodney's plan, and even she had to admit it was impressive and was a solid plan. "Okay, got it. I'll be ready and waiting on your signal. Then i'll meet you at the designated spot."

"Riles. Don't do anything stupid." John almost growled down into the radio.

She bit down on her lip. "I won't." She paused, tapping on her tablet as she thought. "Be safe."

After about 20 minutes Alice started feeling less smug about her plan. The others were now running about Atlantis activating Rodney's plan, whilst she had to stay and wait for the signal. She tapped her foot anxiously on the floor, and lifted her wrist for the hundredth time. They'd gone to radio silence while they moved about the city, to limit the chance of the replicators finding them. But it meant Alice was left waiting with no idea what was happening. She hated being left out of the loop.

A strange sound started vibrating around the room. She stopped moving her leg, staying still to listen. That's when she realised it wasn't just a noise, but the whole floor was vibrating. "What the..." she switched the window on her datapad to connect into the city's main update. "Oh shit..." her hand flew up to her radio. "Rodney, come in. They powering up the stardrive."

"Wait what!" Rodney shrieked into the mic. "Oh this is not good."

"Should i activate now? It'll stop the stardrive." She switched her screen and hovered her finger over the enter key.

"We can't let them take off." She heard John saying in the background of Rodney's mic. Then he must have activated his own radio. "Blow it Riles."

Alice clicked down and all around her sparks flew. The rumbling stopped and alarms and lights started flashing. She stashed her datapad under a floor panel and then swung the ARG off her shoulder into her hands. It wouldn't take the replicators long to trace the issue back to her. "I'm coming to you."

She opened the door and dashed out the room, but heading down the corridor towards her were two replicators. All her instincts told her to aim and pull the trigger, but she couldn't use the ARG. Against all her training she dropped the gun and raised her arms.

The replicators advanced on her pulling the gun off her and painfully twisting her arm around behind her back. She grunted in pain, but relaxed her muscles allowing them to lead her towards the brig.

"Evening General." She said as the replicators tossed her into the cell.

"Nice of you to join us." O'Neill quipped, giving her a sarcastic smile.

"Y'know I hate to miss out on a party." She glared over her shoulder at the replicators, re-adjusting her jacket.

"Oh yes. Nothing better than a good old fashion mind probing." Alice paced forward and took a seat on one of the benches, crossing a leg over the other. O'Neill sighed and joined her. "You got any gum?"

Woolsey looked back and forth between the two of them anxiously. Alice had to admit she enjoyed watching him squirm, their most recent encounter still seemed fresh in her mind. "Will someone please tell me what's going on?"

"Relax Dick. Sit down, put your legs up." O'Neill leaned his head back and closed his eyes.

Alice had always liked the General. She'd been part of the SGC when he was still the team leader of SG-1. He reminded her of John in a lot of ways. They both lived by a certain code that occasionally put them at odds with the uniform they wore. But she couldn't think of anyone she'd rather have leading them.

It wasn't too long before the Replicators came back, this time the forcefield dropped and the guards entered the cell. Alice tensed, they came straight up to her and dragged her to her feet. O'Neill and Woolsey being dragged closely behind her. The replicator was squeezing her arm painfully.

They were lead out and into a neighbouring room, with an identical cell to the one they'd just left. Only this one was filled with her team.

The force field dropped and the guards pushed them the open door. Alice stumbled in, Ronon helping her steady herself.

The lead guard stepped forward in the middle of the doorway. "Did you really think you'd be able to stop us?"

John smiled smugly. "Well, of _course_ we did. Why else would we be here?"

"Colonel? Am I gonna have to fire you?" O'Neill glanced between him and the replicator.

John's smile faded slightly. "No, sir. I think you'll have that to look forward to when we get back."

"I'm afraid your plan has been discovered, Colonel Sheppard. It _is_ over." The guard said. Everyone stopped and stared accusingly at Woolsey.

Woolsey paled, pointing at the guard. "He put his hand in my forehead. How can you resist that?"

"Well, _I_ like to close my eyes and think of England." O'Neill commented snidely.

"Mr Woolsey informed us of everything we need to know. All of your C4 has been removed from the emitters." Another guard stepped forward opening a bag, as if to prove his point the lead guard put his hand in and pulled out a stick of C4. "I'm afraid they won't be destroyed when the _Daedalus_ arrives - which should be in any moment." Alice swallowed tensely. "Your plan has failed."

"Talus. The _Daedalus_ is approaching the planet." An unfamiliar voice called out over the comms system.

Talus almost smiled. "As expected. Activate the shield."

Alice held in her breath, as she waited. They couldn't see or hear the shield activating, but the effect it had was almost instantaneous. One second Talus and the other replicator guards were standing offensively infront of them. And the next they'd been broken down into their base cells.

"Ha! It worked! I can't believe it worked!" Rodney shrieked in joy.

"Rodney - amazing." Elizabeth clapped him on his shoulder.

Alice exhaled. "I have to say Rodney, this might have just been your best plans ever."

Rodney cleared his throat, trying to put on a calm and cool facade. "Well, it was a group effort."

John picked up the bag of C4 the replicator had dropped and tossed it to Rodney. "Good old Plan D - works every time." He gestured to Ronon. "You guys stay here a sec." The two of them ran out of the cell.

"Excuse me, but what just happened?" Woolsey's voice sounded like it was trembling slightly. Alice turned to see him staring wide-eyed at the Replicator cells.

"We turned the shield into a giant Replicator weapon." Rodney grinned.

O'Neill clapped his hand and pointed at him. "I _knew_ that!"

"You knew?" Woolsey stared at the General incredulously.

O'Neill shrugged. "Well, I've seen Carter crack enough codes to know that McKay was faking the door thing."

"He was? I bought it completely." Woolsey blanched.

Alice smirked. "I think that was the point."

"Wait a minute - you ... you _used_ me?"

"You're alive - and you're welcome." Carson said calmly, all signs of his former panic had vanished from the doctor. But the lines under his eyes showed the lingering strain.

Ronon strode back in. "Hey, we're clear."

Elizabeth nodded moving for the door. "OK, we've gotta get to the Control Room and contact the _Daedalus_."

"On it." Alice raced forward, following quickly after Ronon. Out of the two people on the team who could quickly access the system, she was definitely the quicker runner.

She kept on the back of Ronon's heels, running at her top speed through the halls, grabbing the corners of walls to propel herself around bends. Soon enough they were leaping up the steps to the control room. John was already there bashing the panel - his attempt to open a comms channel.

Breathing heavy and sweat beading on her forehead she pushed him aside. "Move." She managed to wheeze out. She typed quickly, accessing the short range systems.

It only took her a few seconds, then she looked up and nodded at John. He entered his authentication code and they waited in tense silence. The rest of the team jogged into the room, anxiously glancing at John. Alice chewed on her bottom lip. Part of her mind was screaming that thy weren't going to buy it. John's authentication code would have been locked out already.

"Colonel, I'd like to believe this is you."

The team all breathed out a collective sigh of relief.

"Well, it is. Authentication code Alpha Delta Charlie Niner Six." John wiped his forehead with the back of his sleeve.

"That code is no longer valid, Colonel." Caldwell said matter of factly.

"Hey, Caldwell. General Jack O'Neill here. That valid enough for you?" O'Neill snapped.

"You may have been compromised, sir." Alice could hear the conflict in Caldwell's voice. In spite of all the conflicts and clashes they'd had in the past, Alice knew he would be just as reluctant to destroy Atlantis as the rest of them.

"We're lowering the city's shields, Steven." Elizabeth gestured to Alice, who quickly started pushing buttons to comply with her order. "You can send a team to come check us out if you need to. We'll explain everything."

—

Before she knew it, Alice was sitting in the infirmary with hazmat clad Daedalus medical personnel, having blood drawn. She winced as the medic pulled the needle out. He pressed a small cotton ball on the spot and she pulled her arm up crushing it between her skin.

"It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to clear you." The medic said, his voice muffled by his helmet.

Alice just nodded. The medic took the blood samples away to a small table where another doctor was staring under a microscope.

Around her the rest of her team were in similar positions. Each sat on a different bed with a medic attending them. Alice felt her eyes drawn towards one bed in particular. John was twitching his foot against the bed, his arm held up the same as hers. But he was leaning back on the other arm, with his head hanging back and his eyes closed. A rush of emotions flooded Alice's system. The threat was over, they'd been able to rid the city of the replicators. But that didn't mean he - or the others - would be staying.

This could simply be just another goodbye. He raised his head back up, immediately Alice turned back to face away. Heat rising in her cheeks as she realised she'd just been caught staring at him. She wondered if he was thinking the same thing or if there was even a slim chance now the Ancient's were gone the expedition would return.

The medic walked back over to her. "Okay, you're all clear." She pulled her jacket on and headed out the door past John and the others, keeping her eyes trained on the floor. She found herself wandering the barren familiar hallways of the city. It felt like a lifetime had passed since they'd occupied the city, despite it being only a few months. The ancients had outfitted the rooms with furniture from their ship or bits and pieces the expedition had moved into storage.

She ended up at the door of her old quarters. Alice lifted her hand up and waved it over the panel, like she had done a hundred times before. But instead of walking into a warm space filled with her personal items and mementos, it was empty and barren. Seeing it like that made her chest constrict. She'd spent so much time over the past fews trying not to think about what she'd lost, what she missed. But now it was staring her in the face. She couldn't bring herself to cross the threshold into her old room.

"Aly! We need you in the control room now." Rodney said urgently, though he didn't sound panicked, more like excited.

She inhaled and turned on her heel, walking towards the control room. When she walked up the stairs everyone was already gathered there, from John to Caldwell. They all shared similar confused expression, all except Elizabeth and Rodney.

"Okay she's here." Rodney said quickly, then proceeded to hush everyone.

Elizabeth squeezed her hands together then smiled. "General O'Neill and Mr Woolsey have just left on a Jumper back to Earth. I wanted to tell you all before it's announced officially, but..." she let her words linger in the air. "The expedition will be returning to Atlantis."

A series of gasps, exclamations and laughs rippled through them. But Alice felt like she'd just been hit by a truck. "What!?" She managed to cry out. "Everyone? When?"

"The General will be informing the SGC as soon as he's back. We should have key personnel and equipment returning within the next few hours." Elizabeth was grinning widely. "The Daedalus will be standing by to support us."

Alice couldn't believe it. After five months they were finally coming back, it felt too good to be true. She almost felt like she was dreaming, then she caught John's eye. The pain, loss and guilt came tearing through her system it was enough to know it wasn't a dream.

She knew she needed to talk to him, but by the time she'd started to work up the courage to walk over to him, Elizabeth cleared her throat. "I know we all want to celebrate, but we have people inbound and I need a full damage and status on the city and its systems. There will be time to celebrate later." She kept her face neutral but a small smile tugged on the corners of her mouth. "Colonel Sheppard, a word please."

And Alice's chance blew past. John and Elizabeth headed for her old office and before she knew it she was back down in the power distribution centre trying to fix the damage she'd done.


	35. Chapter 35

**A/N Happy Tuesday! We finally get to see the first proper interaction between Riles and John this chapter, there are definitely a lot of feelings and pain for them to work through, and neither of them are exactly good at expressing themselves.**

 **Enjoy!**

Recap -

 _Elizabeth squeezed her hands together then smiled. "General O'Neill and Mr Woolsey have just left on a Jumper back to Earth. I wanted to tell you all before it's announced officially, but..." she let her words linger in the air. "The expedition will be returning to Atlantis."_

—-

Alice sat across from Elizabeth in the smaller briefing room. "We were working with the Genii for a little over three months. They knew we'd abandoned the city and reached out to us. They wanted to... utilise our skills." She said considering her words carefully.

"What did-" Before Elizabeth could finish speaking the door to the briefing room opened and John strolled in.

"Sorry I'm late. I didn't get the memo." He said pointedly.

 _That's cause you weren't invited_ , Alice wanted to say. But she held her tongue.

John loudly dragged out a chair and sat down casually next to Elizabeth. Alice attempted to keep the scowl off her face, but judging by Elizabeth's expression she wasn't doing a good job.

Elizabeth glanced uncomfortable between the two of them, sensing the obvious tension hanging in the air. "Alice was just debriefing me about the Genii."

John crossed a leg over the other and leaned back slightly. "Well don't let me interrupt." A slight smirk playing on his lips. "You must have a unique insight."

Alice couldn't look at him, he was purposely trying to irritate her. Pulling her shoulders down, she directed her gaze at Elizabeth. "Like I was just saying, the Genii approached us. Since the expedition left they're the most organised group of humans, willing to go on the offensive against the Wraith." She took in a breath, aware of John's scrutinising gaze. "At first we said no, but they were persistent."

"And that's all it takes." John sneered.

Alice gritted her teeth. "In exchange for our help." she spoke using a carefully controlled tone. "They offered the Athosians food and medical supplies which we desperately needed. And they also agreed to continue helping our other allies like the Taranans."

"And what help, exactly, did you have to give in return?" John said, over annunciating _help_.

Alice finally turned her gaze to John. "Intel, and support on their ops." She seethed. If he was trying to insinuate she'd slept her way around the Genii ranks he was going to regret it.

He raised an eyebrow. "That's all...What about their weapons programme?"

Alice felt her whole body start to tense. She was starting to loose her cool. "I didn't give them blueprints to build a nuclear bomb if that's what you're asking."

Elizabeth's eyebrows drew together as she considered the two of them. "Alice, please."

She turned back to face Elizabeth, attempting to relax her body slightly. "Mostly... we ran support and recon. Since you left" she put some strain on the word. "The Wraith have been busy setting up new outposts along the boarders of populated solar systems. We were trying to find out what they were up to."

"Did you?" Elizabeth asked.

Alice opened her mouth to answer when John interrupted. "Mostly...? what else did you do?"

She pressed her lips together. "We helped Ladon organise strike teams, and advised on his military strategy." She didn't know why but she felt the sudden urge to defend her actions. "We couldn't let the Wraith establish these new bases. So whenever we could, we would go in and destroy them before they finished constructing them. It wasn't like before...we..." She paused, her voice catching in her throat.

"What is it?" Elizabeth pressed gently.

Taking in a breath she steadied her trembling hands. "Running ops was riskier with the Genii, without the database or MALPs we were heading in blind. Our intel could only tell us so much." She hesitated, thinking about the faces she'd led on their first strike mission. And how many of them didn't come back. "Sometimes...things didn't go to plan."

Elizabeth nodded. "I see. Do you know what were they doing at these outposts?"

Alice shook her head. "We don't know. The Genii weren't too worried about that, they just wanted them gone. No matter the cost."

"Now that sounds more like the Ladon we know." John scowled.

"Y'know he's just trying to protect his people and the rest of this galaxy." Alice snapped back.

John straightened in his chair. "You're defending him now?" His voice was slightly raised and his eyes bored accusingly at her.

Alice felt her blood starting to boil. "Are you questioning my judgement?!"

John didn't answer, his expression told her everything she needed to know though.

"John. Alice." Elizabeth said sharply.

Alice glared at John a moment longer, before tearing away to look at Elizabeth. "Look, my report will include all the details and addresses of the outposts we took out or knew about." She stood up abruptly, unwilling to sit under John's scrutiny.

Elizabeth and John followed suit. "Thank you Alice." Elizabeth said politely.

Turning her back on John she started walking to the door alongside their leader. "With your permission Elizabeth, i'd like to reach out to Ladon and let him know we're back. We've been out of the game, he can help us reestablish ourselves. It's also been a while, and he's probably wondering what's happened to us."

Elizabeth started to nod, but John's voice stopped her. "No."

Alice steeled herself, but she didn't turn around. "I wasn't asking you."

"The Genii have put this expedition at risk more times than we can count. I won't allow you to broadcast our vulnerability to them." He argued back, starting to raise his voice.

Alice whipped her head around to face him, her eyes blazing. "Ladon is a good man, we can trust him. He's-"

"I said no."

"Then you're making a mistake." Alice spat back at him.

"Two years ago this guy almost let you bleed to death right over there." He threw his hand out to point towards the control room.

She raised her voice to match his. "And if it wasn't for him I would be rotting on some Wraith planet."

"That's enough." Elizabeth shouted over the top of them. "Both of you." She took in a breath and lowered her voice. "I will consider your request Alice. But i will not have two of my senior officers getting into a screaming match." Although softer, her voice was full of authority, she narrowed her eyes at the two of them daring them to challenge her.

Alice continued to glare at John. "Yes ma'am. If that's all then." She turned and stormed out of the room.

She couldn't believe his arrogance. Huffing she stomped down the hallway towards the south pier. In the two days since Elizabeth had announced the expedition would be returning she'd barely had time to sleep. People started arriving through the gate in groups - curtesy to one of the Ancient's new ZPMs O'Neill had taken back with him - one after the other just a few hours of O'Neill's return.

The first through the gate were all SG team members. It had made the IOA and the President nervous that the gateway to Earth from Pegasus was currently just being held by one team (and the Daedalus). Alice couldn't complain though, among the first to step through were Evan and Lloyd. Though Evan hadn't been happy with John after he'd found out he hadn't been included on the rescue mission back here.

In all the chaos of moving all the equipment, getting people settled, and trying to regain control of the city's systems, Alice and John hadn't had a chance to talk. Before last night, they'd briefly seen each other in the hallways but avoided eye contact. It was safe to say they had some issues they needed to resolve, but after last night and just now Alice wasn't even sure how to approach him.

She arrived on the isolated balcony, closing her eyes, letting the cool ocean air pass by her. She was still seething, she couldn't believe what he'd said to her, the way he'd said it to her.

 _ **Flashback to the previous night**_

Alice pushed through the crowded mess hall, they'd spent the whole day welcoming back teams and re-installing equipment. Alice's muscles ached and all she wanted was to head back to her quarters and fall into bed. But Elizabeth had organised a celebratory gathering for all the returning personnel, now that all but a few of the expedition personnel had returned.

Typical of all the parties they'd thrown in the city, it had started as a rather classy affair but once everyone had a few drinks in them - especially the military personnel - everything descended into a full blown rave. Someone had dimmed the lights and somehow jerry-rigged their iPod into the mess hall's speaker system, so loud music blasted through the room.

She finally saw who she was looking for, standing amongst a group of soldiers was Evan and Lloyd. "There you are!" she shouted over the loud music.

A beaming smile spread across Evan's face. "Ahhhh Aly-cat!" he yelled, pulling her into a back crunching hug.

"Geez Ev, you're crushing me!" She laughed, trying to push herself off her friend.

"Aw give him a break Als, he's been moping about you for months." Lloyd wrapped his arm around the two of them, a drink in his hand. "I'm never going to see her again, why didn't i stay with her." Lloyd grinned as he did his best impression of a pouting Evan.

Evan flushed and slapped Lloyd's arm off him. "Shut up." he grumbled.

Alice just giggled, it was nice to have her friends back. Lloyd held his hand up in surrender. "Alright, alright. Seriously though it's good to see yah." he ruffled the top of Alice's head. "Is it true you're not banging the Colonel anymore? 'Cause if you're not?" He waggled his eyebrows at her, looking her up and down.

Alice groaned, Lloyd just didn't have any tact. She knew it would come up sooner or later, but she'd been hoping for later.

Evan elbowed their friend in the side. "Come on, enough."

"Touchy, touchy." Lloyd took a big gulp of his drink and looked over towards the make-shift bar. "Alright, drinks are on me. We are celebrating our glorious return."

Alice couldn't help but laugh as he went careening through the crowd to fetch them more drinks. "Sorry about that." Evan leaned down to whisper in Alice's ear, so she would be able to hear him over the music.

"Don't worry about it." She smiled, hoping he would drop the issue.

"Is it true? You and Sheppard aren't getting back together?" His eyes gazed into hers.

She sighed, honestly she didn't really know. They hadn't had a chance to talk about what would happen now they were back. Pressing her lips to his ear so no one else would see, she said. "I don't really want to think about it right now." She pulled back to look in his eyes, pleading for him to drop it.

He nodded, bringing his hand up to push her hair back behind her ear. "Alright. Then let's focus on something else."

Just then Lloyd reappeared with a tray of shots in his hands. "The party is here." Laughing they all grabbed a glass and clinked them together. Alice tipped her head back and tried not to wince as the burning liquid slid down her throat. "And another!" Lloyd placed another glass in each of their hands, with all of them obediently tipping their heads back to drain yet another glass.

Alice wasn't sure how many she ended up having, but with everything going on she couldn't help but want to celebrate having her friends back with her and forget about her troubles with John. And that's when she got into trouble.

Huddled in their small corner, Alice laughed and drank with her friends. To her surprise, the crowd hadn't thinned out too much even though it had to be well past midnight at this point. She'd seen Teyla socialising with some of the scientists from botany, whilst Ronon was arm wrestling with some of the new marines. It would be a miracle if no one broke a wrist.

A small area in the middle of the hall had been cleared to make space for a dance floor. As she glanced around, the smile dropped from her lips and her face instantly flushed in anger.

Across the room she could see John casually resting up against a pillar drinking from a glass, and a woman standing close to him. They were laughing as John leant down to say something in the woman's ear, his signature smirk playing on his face. The woman was beaming up at him with her hand reaching out to stoke his arm. Alice hadn't seen her before, she must've have been a new recruit - but seeing John flirting with her sent a burning sensation through her chest.

She always knew that he'd move on eventually, but she never thought she'd be around to see it.

Alcohol and jealousy were never good bedfellows. She tried to ignore it, to focus on her friends in front of her. But every 30 seconds she'd check over her shoulder to see if they were still there, smiling, talking, touching.

"You okay Aly? It looks like smoke is about to start coming out of your ears…" Evan's tone was soft, caring.

It made her think back to the days she'd spent seeking comfort in his arms. They'd long moved past their feelings for each other, but for a split second Alice considered it. The image already formed in her mind, how much it would take to convince him to fall back into bed with her.

But the image was gone as soon as it had come. She didn't want him, and he didn't want her. Not like that.

"I'm fine." She replied curtly, once again glancing over her shoulder at John and the woman. She grabbed the drink in his hand and finished it for him, before taking his hand and pulling him towards the dance floor. She wanted to wipe the image of John out of her brain. "Let's dance."

Still confused, Evan allowed her to pull him onto the floor. Lloyd and the other boys whooped and cat-called loudly behind them, causing most people in the room to turn and stare at them. Alice didn't let herself worry about them though, she wrapped her arms around Evan's neck and started swaying to the music. Joining the other couples on the dance floor. Despite the amount of alcohol he'd drunk, Evan didn't miss a beat. Placing his hands on her waist. "This hasn't got something to do with the Colonel, does it?"

Alice smiled sweetly, tilting her head to the side. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Even with her senses dulled by the alcohol, she could feel John's eyes boring into her, but she didn't care. She wanted to forget him. Forget the pain. And if her enjoying the moment caused a spark of jealousy in John, then she wasn't going to deny that it made the moment even sweeter.

Evan twisted her around and spun her out, catching her outstretched hand. Laughing Alice looked over to the gathering crowd of marines and airmen. "Come on!" She yelled. That seemed to be all the encouragement Lloyd and the others to join them, jumping up and down around them. Evan released his grip on her waist as they parted and allowed everyone to join in around them. The dance floor became a tight knit group of arms and legs flailing about. She even noticed Ronon joining in at one point, a drink sloshing in his hand. Throwing her head back, Alice grinned and closed her eyes enjoying the moment.

When Alice dared to glance over to where John had been standing, all she saw was an empty gap. She tried looking through the crowds but she couldn't see him or the woman he'd been with anywhere.

Briefly, she wondered if he'd taken her back to his room.

That was the last conscious thought she had the rest of the night. After more drinks were poured, the night became a blur.

Alice woke up to knocking on her door. Groggy and bleary eyed, she slipped out of her bed and headed for the door.

The knocking became more insistent. "Yeah, yeah." she mumbled, yawning waving her hand over the door panel. Standing outside her door was Lloyd and Rodney. Squinting she looked them over, Rodney had his arm up telling her he'd been the one knocking. "What…"

Lloyd was grinning. "Wow Aly, you look…"

Alice held up her finger in Lloyd's face. She was still wearing her uniform from the night before, and she was sure her hair looked like a bird's nest. "Don't even think it Lloyd."

She saw his lips pull into a smile. Rodney cleared his throat impatiently. "Yes, well. Alice, Elizabeth asked me to come by and ask you to debrief her on the Genii situation, and I also need you to come by the lab to help with the instal."

Alice covered her mouth with the back of her hand trying to stifle a yawn. "Sure thing, I'll be by as soon as I can." She turned to Lloyd. "And did you come by just to mock me?" she raised an eyebrow.

His smile turned into a cheeky grin, as he folded his arms across his chest. "Nope, I came by to get our Major."

Alice dropped her hand, confused, "Major…?" Lloyd pointed back into her room.

Knitting her brows together she followed Lloyd's finger. That's when she noticed an extra set of combat boots on the floor and a SG team jacket thrown over her chair. Tilting her eyes up she finally saw Evan asleep on the sofa by the window.

"Um…" she was lost for words, looking between Lloyd's amused face and Rodney's suspicious one. She squinted trying to force herself to remember what had happened last night, from Lloyd's expression she could tell he was trying to suggest something had happened between the two of them. "He was to drunk to make it to his room." she said. Memories of trying to half drag and half carry Evan down the halls came into her mind.

"Sure thing Riley." Lloyd strode past her and into the room. "Come on Major - the Colonel has been looking for you. I can't wait to see his face when sees you."

Alice felt her heart drop through the floor. "You didn't…" Panic flared in her chest as she saw the mischievous look on Lloyd's face. "What did you say to him!" She spun around and stormed after him. "I swear to god Lloyd."

Lloyd let out a bark of laughter, ignoring her and hitting Evan on the shoulder trying to wake him up. "Nothing for you to worry about Riley… Besides I thought you two weren't a thing anymore?"

Evan yawned below them. "Lloyd? Aly?"

Alice grabbed the front of Lloyd's jacket. "Whatever we are is none of your business. Now tell me." She growled.

Lloyd held his hands up in surrender. "I didn't tell him anything. He showed up at my door this morning telling me to collect the Major and that i'd find him in your room."

Alice's throat tightened. She didn't know if she ought to be outraged at his insinuation or embarrassed. Lloyd pulled his jacket out of her grip, "We really need to get going." He grabbed the back of Evan's shirt and hauled him the rest of the way up to his feet.

She stepped back, allowing them to move past her. The smell of stale alcohol hit her and made bile rise in her throat.

Rodney lingered in the doorway as Alice ushered Evan and Lloyd out of the door. "I swear to god Lloyd. Don't think I still couldn't beat your ass." She yelled after him as he led a barely awake Evan down the hall, cackling with laughter. "Shit." She turned to face Rodney. "What!" she said, probably a bit too fiercely.

Rodney paled and took a step backward. "Nothing, I'll…um…I'll see you later."

The door slid shut leaving Alice back in her dark room. Her knees dropped out from underneath her as she slid to the floor groaning. Today was going to be the worst day. She needed to talk to John, hopefully before he heard anything. Though memories of last night coursed through her mind, John with the female scientist. Suddenly, she wondered if the reason he'd left was to be with her. Alice couldn't remember seeing her again after John left. "When did things get so complicated." she folded her hands over her head, dreading the impending conversation that she would have to endure.

Even though she knew she should get up and find John, she found it difficult to move. Not because of the headache that was forming behind her eyes, but because of the fear knotting her stomach together. A significant amount of time had passed, she was sure she still had feelings for him, that much was clear. But what if he didn't feel the same? What if that was it for them…

She agonised over these thoughts for a few minutes, before finally motivating herself to stand up. She pulled on her jacket, taking a moment to fix her appearance then headed out the door steeling herself to deal with John.

It didn't take her long to find him, every morning he was holding briefings with the military teams, updating them on the mission and if they were returning crew then what had changed. She arrived just as BDU clad soldiers started filing out of the briefing room. John spotted her almost immediately, but he turned away and pretended to busy himself with the blueprints and reports on the desk. "If you're looking for Major Lorne he left already." John's voice was cold, Alice winced stepping forward.

"Actually I was looking for you." She rubbed her arm, looking around the room. "I thought we needed to talk."

"I don't think we've got anything to talk about."Alice felt the temperature of the air drop. He still had his back to her. A few moments of silence passed as Alice tried to figure out what to say, her mind suddenly blank. "What do you want to say, _Doctor_." Her skin prickled, he was purposefully trying to get under her skin.

"I never thought I was going to see you again."

John's head snapped around. "So you just turn to the first man you met? Is that what you're trying to tell me?" His tone was scathing.

"Evan and I are just friends, you know that better than anyone."

He turned back to his documents. "And Ladon. What's he then?"

"Ladon? What the hell has he got to do with this?" Alice yelled.

"You know what. It doesn't matter." John turned around to face her. "You made it very clear that we're done. So I suggest you spend more time focusing on your job."

Alice's mouth felt dry, she took a step towards John. "Fine.

"Colonel, I was-" Alice jumped backwards as a strangers voice interrupted their screaming match.

She had no idea why he had brought up Ladon. And no idea what to say back. Glancing at the entrance a junior office stood in the doorway holding a data pad against her chest. Her face flushed as she realised what she'd just walked in on. "I'm sorry sir." she apologised and started to turn around.

Alice straightened up, narrowing her eyes at John. "Don't worry Lieutenant. I was just leaving." Without another glance at him she stormed out the door, blood pounding in her ears.

Alice felt like her head was about to explode. She let out a few short breaths trying to calm herself down, out of the corner of her eye she caught the time on her watch. "Oh great." She muttered realising she was late to meet with Elizabeth.

 _ **End of flashback**_

Another gust of wind blew across her face, Alice closed her eyes and inhaled, hoping the air would help clear her brought her hands up to rub her face. "There you are." Ronon's voice startled her. "Teyla's been looking for you. Something about the power in the residential block."

Sniffling she wiped her eyes and pushed away from the railing. "Sure. I'll head down there now."

Before she could walk back into the hallway, Ronon grabbed her shoulder. "You okay?" She didn't even know he knew about her little hideaway here, the only other person she'd hung out here with was John. Ronon must've sensed her hesitance. "I heard about what happened."

Alice sighed. "Already... geez. We're back five minutes and I'm already centre of the gossip mill." Taking a step back she rubbed her fingers against her temple. "John just... he." She didn't even know how to put it into words. "He basically accused me of sleeping with Ladon. I have no idea where he got that idea." She rambled, stopping when she noticed Ronon wincing. "What." She glared at him accusingly.

"That might have been my fault..." he said softly. "Sheppard was asking about the Genii and I mentioned you and Ladon were quite close. And that he seemed to have a bit of an affection for you."

Alice groaned, grabbing a fist full of her hair and tugging it. "Why do men have to be so petty. I mean is that what he really thinks of me?!" She growled, letting go of her hair she paced back and forth on the balcony. Her brain filled with so many thoughts she was sure they were about to explode out of her brain. The logical part of her brain told her that she had no right to be angry given what she'd said to him when they'd broken up, that he didn't owe her a conversation. But she was more emotional than that, she wanted to storm back into his office, throw a chair at his head and make him understand. Or maybe at least shoot him with an intar.

But she stopped pacing, taking in a deep breath. Allowing her face to drop to the ground. "God, I don't know how it got to this."

"It may not be my place, but…" Ronon drew in a breath and Alice glanced up to meet his eyes. "He never said it outright, but you meant everything to him. Losing that..." he cleared his throat uncomfortably. "Losing that is almost impossible to deal with."

From his tone and expression, she could tell he wasn't just sympathising. He'd never really spoken about Sateda, and whether he'd left anyone behind. But now she was sure. "I...I never wanted to hurt him." She said pathetically, knowing it was the worst excuse in the book.

"Give him time." Ronon said softly, then turned to leave her alone.

Over the next week she avoided John like the plague, not that they had any reason to see each other. They hadn't restarted off-world missions, and instead were focused on re-establishing themselves in the City and with their close allies - including the Genii. Alice had been there to greet Ladon as he stepped through the gate, and whilst she'd tried to remove herself from the talks, Ladon had apparently insisted heavily on her presence. This didn't make things any easier with John when he found out.

When she wasn't in the labs analysing the new systems the Ancients had reactivated, she spent her time with Teyla, Ronon or Evan.

Right now, she was sat in the lab scrolling through a screen of Ancient text. "He's back!" Rodney laughed.

Alice poked her head up over her screen to look at him. "Whose back?"

"Sam." Rodney said as though it explained everything. She raised an eyebrow, when she didn't reply Rodney looked up from his screen. "What?"

"Again. Who?" she repeated.

"Oh he's the whale that helped Sheppard and Zalenka find me last year."

"You named it Sam?"

"Yeah. Well it looks like he's just outside the city." Rodney stood up. "I bet you could see him from the main balcony." He ran about the lab pulling things out of boxes. Alice leaned back in her chair watching. "Ah ha!" He pulled out a pair of binoculars. "Do you want to?" he gestured to the door.

"uhh…I'm good. Say hi for me." She smiled, watching as he eagerly scampered out of the room.

Evan was walking through the door, pressed up against the wall to allow Rodney to dash past him. "Afternoon Aly-cat. What's his deal?"

She glanced at where Rodney had just vanished. "Something about whales."

"Alright… anyways, what are you up to?"

Alice sighed, putting her hands on her head. "Research - as always. Why?" she narrowed her eyes suspiciously at him.

Grabbing her hips he swivelled her chair around to face him. "Capture the flag, I need another team captain."

Alice immediately perked up. "Really?" then she hesitated. "wait, what about…"

"He's off picking up Radek and Ronon from the mainland. Then he's off duty. You've got the whole day." He grinned at her eagerly.

She grinned back. "Then count me in."

Alice wiped the sweat off her brow with the back of her sleeve. As always her team had annihilated Evan's a fact she wasn't going to let him live down anytime soon. She'd even managed to land an Intar shot on him.

Evan groaned. "That's going to kill for a week you know."

Alice laughed. "Serves you right. You knew i was always better at this than you." She nudged his shoulder playfully as he winced. The sun had already gone down and the corridors were gently lit. "I need to hit the showers. I'll see you tomorrow okay?" she turned down the hallway walking backwards towards her room.

"Later Aly-cat." Evan waved as she spun around to walk down the hall.

Alice was almost at her door when she heard Teyla call out. "Hello."

"Teyla?" Alice looked around but couldn't see her friend.

"Wait!"

Alice started running towards her. "Teyla!" She turned a corner to see her friend in front of a door holding her head. "Oh my god. Teyla." She grabbed her friend.

"Alice." Teyla looked around, seemingly just taking her appearance next to her. "I am okay. I just…" She looked towards the door.

Alice followed her eyeliner but saw nothing. "Come on, you should go to the Infirmary."

Teyla smiled and shook her head. Her eyes focusing on Alice's. "Sorry. I am just tired. I am fine, really. I just need to sleep."

Alice knitted her brow together, not entirely believing her. But they'd been through so much together. If Teyla said she was fine, then she owed it to her to leave it alone. "Alright. At least let me walk you back to your room."

Teyla nodded and together they headed back towards her room. "How is it going with John?"

Alice sighed. "It's not. We haven't spoken since our disastrous screaming match in front of Elizabeth."

They stopped walking by Teyla's door. Teyla dipped her head, and Alice copied touching her forehead to her friends. "Give it time. You'll figure things out. Goodnight my friend."

Alice gave her a small smile. "Goodnight." She waited under the door slid shut, before continuing on to her own room.

The next morning, woke up with a pounding headache. It felt like someone was trying to drill into her skull through her temples. Looking over at her watch, the digital output read, 4:16am.

Yawning, she pulled her pillow over her head and squeezed her eyes shut. But it did nothing to alleviate the pain. Throwing the pillow and blankets off, she stood up and grabbed her emergency medkit from her pack and slipped out a pack of painkillers. She made a mental note to go by the infirmary later to restock.

Tipping her head back she swallowed the pills. Even though they were strong it would still be about 20 minutes before she felt the full effect. Grabbing her jacket, she headed straight for the Jumper bay. Radek had told her about what had happened the day before and asked her to take a look at a possible navigational glitch. Hopefully it would take her mind off her headache.

When she walked into the bay Radek was already there, plugged into the main control panel. "You're here late." she remarked.

"Huh." Radek almost dropped the tablet. "Oh Alice. What time is it?" he lifted his wrist to look at his watch.

"Go get some sleep. I can take care of this."

"Thanks." He pushed his glasses up his nose. "It's just so puzzling. I can't seem to find any reason why the navigation was off."

Alice stepped into the jumper and held her hand out for the data pad. "I'll take a look and let you know if I find anything."

"Oka-" A yawn interrupted his words and he slumped out of the Jumper and towards the bay stairs.

Once he left, she took a seat on the bench and started reviewing all the test and data Radek had taken during the night, to see if there was anything in there. It was hard to focus at first, but once the painkillers started kicking in, a numb relief came.

The data was everything she expected. Like he said, she couldn't find anything that would have caused the Jumper to divert off course.

She wasn't sure how many hours had passed, before she heard footsteps approaching the Jumper. She assumed it was Radek coming back. "I haven't found anything yet…" She stopped when she saw John appear in the door.

"Oh. Didn't know anyone was here." He said awkwardly.

Alice glanced back at her data pad, letting her hair fall down over her face. "Sorry, do you need to use the Jumper?"

John shuffled awkwardly in the entrance, he seemed unsure whether to step forward or retreat back. Though at least so far they'd managed not to scream at each other. "Uh...Yeah. Gonna check out some whales. Rodney's on his way" John pointed over his shoulder. "- he's just taking some Dramamine but, uh …" He looked at her. "Yeah, we can take another Jumper." He started backing out the way he'd come.

Alice quickly unplugged her data pad. "No, go ahead. I'm done here anyway." She held the tablet protectively against her chest, her head starting to pound again, and took a false step towards John. Then deliberately walking past him. "Uh. There still might be a slight glitch so just take it easy."

"Well, we won't go far. We'll stay within sight of the city …" Alice nodded, and kept walking past him. "... plus you'll be tracking us from the Control Room."

"What?"Alice froze. "Um… I have other-" but John had disappeared into the cockpit. "Okay then." she said under her breath, heading for the control room passing Rodney on the stairs. "He's in Jumper 4." Rodney nodded a thanks and carried on running.

Slumping down into one of the spare control stations, she brought up the city's internal and short range sensors, marking the jumper and the Whales so she could track them both.

"Alight, Alice you there?" John's voice clicked through her ear. A slight pang of hurt resounded through her as he still refused to use his old pet name for her.

"Yeah, I'm here" Her voice was hoarse, quickly she cleared it and focused on the screen. "The whales – or what ever they are - are about a kilometre away, 200m down at your two o'clock position."

"There they are. Should have a visual on them any moment now." She heard Rodney through the open comms.

She pinched her screen, zooming in on the jumper's position. The whales hadn't seemed to notice them yet or simply weren't bothered by it. Then suddenly the dots moved closer to the Jumper and disappeared.

"Where'd they go?" She heard Rodney ask.

"I don't know."

Alice tapped her screen, trying to figure out what happened, when the dot re-appeared right in front of the Jumper. "Geez! They're right in front of you."

"Yeah! We're aware of that!" John sounded annoyed. "What's wrong?"

She listened closer. "Now my head's hurting too." Rodney complained.

"That's not a coincidence."

"Guys, you should get out of there. It could just be the whales' echolocation…"

"I'm pulling back." John confirmed.

Alice put her screen back to the normal view to monitor their re-surfacing. That's when she noticed a large block of flashing dots. "Uh oh." she zoomed in on it.

"Uh oh, what?" John asked.

"You have a large group of whales inbound, they're heading for your position."

"How _many_ more?"

"Dozens. They're only a few kilometres away, but closing fast."

"Rodney?" John said warily.

There was a few seconds silence. It made her uncomfortable. "What's going on?" she asked.

"Your nose is bleeding." John said.

Alice tapped her ear piece twice. "Elizabeth, we need you in the control room."

Elizabeth's reply came instantly. "Be right there."

Alice explained quickly over the comms what had happened. But she must not have been far away as a couple of minutes later Elizabeth appeared in beside her. "What's their status?"

"They're trying to head back away from the whales. Hopefully that will alleviate their pain." Alice's voice was tense, she brought her hand up to rub her temples trying to ignore the pressure building.

Elizabeth tapped the comms button. "John, this is Elizabeth. How are you holding up?"

"Other than feeling like my head's about to explode, I'm fine." John groaned.

On her screen she could still see the Jumper and the Whales circling around them. "I thought we were moving away from them?" They heard Rodney say over the mic.

"I'm trying to, but they're cutting us off." John said impatiently.

Rodney groaned in pain. Elizabeth gripped the back of Alice's chair, leaning in towards her screen. "What happened?"

"The whales are gettin' way too close." he paused. "Crap!"

"John, what's going on there?" Elizabeth's voice was less composed now.

"Rodney's passed out. His ears are bleeding. We've gotta get out of the water."

Alice turned to the side and hit her earpiece. "Carson we're going to need you and a medical team in the Jumper bay asap." She turned back and shared a knowing nod with Elizabeth. A few moments of silence past. "John, are you alright?" No reply. "John?" she asked again.

They watched as the Jumper suddenly went into a steep incline and burst out of the water. "We're out of the water. Rodney's in trouble. Have a medical team ready." His voice breathy.

"Already done." Elizabeth reported.

Alice watched until the Jumper had landed safely within the bay, then both Elizabeth and her stood up to head to the Infirmary. "Keep an eye in those whales!" She yelled back to one of the technicians.

By the time they got there, Rodney and John were sat up in adjoining beds. To her relief they were both conscious and opening their mouths comically wide as though they were trying to pop their ears.

Alice turned back to face Carson and Elizabeth. "Their eardrums have been perforated." He told them.

"How?" Elizabeth asked.

Alice pointed to the screen, Carson moved aside allowing her to bring up a separate frequency chart. "The whales are emitting an intense low-frequency pulse, like a sonar, as well as an E.M field. The combination is very dangerous to humans, particularly in such close proximity."

"It's the whales!" They all twisted around as Rodney loudly shouted at them.

Alice and Elizabeth both exchanged a look with Carson. "Hearing's been impaired. It should heal soon."

"It's their echolocation. It's creating very powerful vibrations. The closer we got, the worse it became." Rodney continued to yell.

Alice couldn't help but smile, she closed the screen and walked over to his bedside. "We know Rodney!" She said loudly.

"Oh!"

Next to him, John was holding his nose and taking in a breath. He looked over to see them all staring at him. "What?" He said as loud as Rodney.

Alice held up her hand to cover her laugh, turning it into a cough.

Carson and Elizabeth joined her, both with concerned looks on their faces.

She patted Rodney's leg. "I'll check on you later!" She pointed at him and then started walking out of the room. "Oh Carson, could I get a restock of pain meds for my kit?"

"Sure love, but didn't you just restock yesterday?" Carson walked over to the dispensary, entering in his code in the door.

Alice rubbed the back of her neck. "Sorry, I had a really bad migraine this morning and had to raid my pack."

His face was unreadable as he handed the meds to her. "Last night? How's it been since?"

"Yeah, it's not really gone away but it's manageable."

Carson handed her the meds. "Okay, but come and see me if it starts getting worse."

She took the tablets gratefully and headed straight back to the control room. The whale pod had grown exponentially in size and were now surrounding the city. "Elizabeth, you need to see this." She called over her shoulder.

Elizabeth came across from her office with Ronon and Teyla behind her. She pushed her chair to the side so the others could see her screen. "The whales are coming from every direction. There are thousands of them. And it looks like they're all heading here."

Elizabeth looked at her confused. "We are their destination?"

"It looks that way. The signals they emit are their way of communicating with each other. Unfortunately, the closer they get to the city, the more it may affect the people living here." Alice frowned, feeling helpless.

"Even above the waterline?" Ronon asked.

Alice grimaced, but nodded.

"We are already being affected. Several of us are experiencing headaches - not as severe as Doctor McKay or Colonel Sheppard - but if these whales get any closer …" Teyla trailed off.

Elizabeth grimaced. "Turn on the shield."

"Yeah…" Alice agreed, rolling over to activate it.

When she turned back around a splitting headache hit her. She blinked, and in front of her she thought she saw two people dressed in Ancient clothing standing at one of the control consoles. "Alice?" She thought she heard Elizabeth's voice, but her gaze was fixed on the Ancients.

They were speaking quickly, their faces looked panicked as they worked on the control panel. She took a step closer, the voices got louder, but it was like all the words were garbled together. No matter how hard she tried she couldn't make out a single word.

The pain intensified, "Aly!" Ronon called. There was a screech and pressure built in her sinuses, head and ears. Then she felt nothing.

—-

When she came to, she was laying under a bright light. Squinting she held up her hand to cover the source, it took her a moment to take in her surroundings. She was in the Infirmary, her head still pounded. Pushing herself up into a sitting position she saw Carson standing over a bed nearby.

Groaning she pushed herself up and swung her legs off the bed onto the floor, heading for the Doctor.

It wasn't until she got closer she realised he was standing next to Teyla, but her eyes were focused off into the distance. Alice turned and almost fell over, where a few seconds ago had been an empty space, was now an Ancient operating theatre with a severely burned man. The pressure started building again. "Alice!" Carson rushed over.

"I'm fine." She turned away, wincing as the headache increased.

"No you're bloody not." He held a piece of gauze up to her nose, Alice hadn't even realised it was bleeding.

"Carson." She chided. Moving towards Teyla's bed. "How you doing?"

Teyla's distracted gaze focused on her for a split second. "I'm fine." Alice winced realised how she unconvincing she must've sounded to Carson not two seconds before.

Alice looked back at him. "What's going on?"

"It's the Whales. The more that arrived the worse you're getting." He took her arm and guided her back onto her bed. "We had to sedate you."

Alice winced. "That bad huh?"

Carson raised a torch and looked into her eyes. "I don't know why, but a few of you seem especially sensitive to the whales." He lowered the torch and that's when Alice noticed all the beds around her, filled with personnel. Some sedated, and others scrunching up their faces in pain.

Before she could reply, Elizabeth walked in and headed straight for them. "I've just spoken with Colonel Caldwell. The _Daedalus_ Infirmary is ready to beam up the sickest of the patients."

"Good. Teyla and Alice should be amongst the first to go." He gave both of them a hard stare. Alice opened her mouth to protest, but Teyla beat her to it.

Teyla shook her head. "No. I'm staying."

"You're far too sick, dear. Both of you." Carson pleaded.

Alice was about to protest, when a rapid panicked babbling echoed behind her. Almost too scared to turn around, she steeled herself to see a man writhing in agony on an Ancient operating table. She pushed off the table and covered her mouth with her hand.

It was like she could smell the burnt flesh of the man. "Aly?" Carson put his hand gently on her arm. But she didn't turn around, she realised the man's clothes looked familiar. Like a flight suit, she'd worn enough in her life to recognise the practical over comfort design. "He's a pilot." She murmured.

"It's a uniform." Teyla's voice behind her, let her know she wasn't the only one to see it.

Alice took a step closer, the pain increasing as she did. "Who is?" Carson asked.

A sharp pain stabbed through her temples. "The burned man." Alice carried on. She pinched her nose trying to alleviate the pain. "He is an Ancient pilot."

Her ears popped and she felt a warm liquid dripping down from them. "Alice." Carson pulled over a chair, so she could fall into it.

She struggled to take in a breath. "I just…need a moment."

"No. No more moments. Nurse." She felt the bed moving underneath her. The pain in her ears intensified, and a warm liquid started dripping down out of her nose. "Colonel Caldwell. Ready to beam the first group."

Her last view was of Teyla and Carson, watching her with concern as the white light engulfed her.

The Daedalus' medbay was teeming with nurses and patients, as they carried in body after body. All of them wore Atlantis uniforms. She lifted her hand to her head, it was only then that she realised a drip had been attached to her hand.

Gently lowering it back on to the bed, she looked around for the head medic. "Doctor!" She called out. Realising that everything sounded muffled and out of focus.

"Doctor Riley." She could see the familiar words form on the doctor's lips, but they barely registered in her ears. "Good to see you're awake."

It was disconcerting to only hear a muffled voice. "I can't hear very well."

The Doctor gave her a reassuring smile. "You perforated your eardrums. You'll be fine in a few days."

Alice just nodded, only catching about half of what he said. "Atlantis?" She asked, realised that she was mostly likely shouting as he winced back away from her.

He just shook his head slightly. "Not good. But I don't know anymore."

Alice closed her eyes to think, the pain in her head was dull. Probably in part to the meds they were pumping into her. But it meant it was clear enough for her to consider their options. To do that she needed a better understanding of what was going on.

She opened her eyes. The doctor had moved onto another patient, probably thinking she'd fallen asleep. Checking to make sure no one was paying her any close attention, she ripped the IV out of her hand and slipped off the bed.

The medbay was so busy with people coming in and out, no one noticed an extra one heading out the door, with a borrowed medical jacket.

She ran down the corridors towards the bridge, as she ran she could feel the vibration of the ship's engines powering up. They were on the move.

Picking up her pace she ran out of an adjoining corridor and straight into John. "Riles?" His arms shot out to catch her shoulders.

Even though her hearing was still muffled she knew exactly what he was saying. It was written clear as day across his face.

"I can't just sit in the infirmary and wait to die." She said, or yelled, defiantly.

John narrowed his eyes and stared at her. All she could hear was the sound of her heart as it pounded in her chest. He was evaluating her, and she knew it, if she showed any sign of weakness now he'd have her hauled back to the infirmary. He was also probably deciding if this was worth the effort to fight over.

"Rodney's in the engine room." He said loud enough for her to hear. She turned to leave but John caught her wrist. "One slip and I'll strap you down in the Infirmary myself."

His tone was serious, but Alice couldn't help smirking. "I didn't realise you were into that."

Without waiting for his reaction, she slipped out of his grip and headed for the engine room.

"Rodney!" She yelled into the room. He was holding a large bundle of cables with crystals attached on either end. One side was still connected to a tray in the wall, whilst he walked the other side over to a makeshift ZPM holder. She froze in place. "What the…"

"Good! I need the extra hands." He dumped a load of the cables into Alice's arms then scurried back to the crystal tray. "Connect those to the ZPM!" He must have said it twice, as it was obnoxiously loud, and he stared at her gesturing to the ZPM.

Alice got the gist, the tray Rodney was messing with was for the shield generator. Whatever he was planning they were going to need a lot of extra energy.

"What, we are already?" Rodney's sudden speech surprised Alice. Glancing over thinking he was chatting to her, she realised his head was still down in the tray, with a finger on his ear. "Aly! Is the ZPM connected?" He yelled at her.

Alice snapped her head back down to the connectors in her hand. "I need one more minute." She worked quicker.

A loud alarm sounded on the wall panel, loud enough for it to make her deaf ears ring.

Rodney's faced paled as he read the screen. "The prominence is fully collapsing into the photosphere. Brace yourselves."

Alice slipped the connectors into the right places and grabbed the ZPM just before the ship started shaking. "It's ready!"

The shaking wasn't horrible, so Alice carefully secured the ZPM. Then walked over to Rodney to look at his read out. That's when she realised what they were doing.

The Daedalus was being used to diffract the solar event away from Lantea. "This is crazy." She grabbed the tablet and ran through the data. She grabbed a radio off the nearby desk.

"How long will this last, Doctor?" Caldwell asked.

Alice replied before Rodney could. "We have no idea. These kind of solar events can last anywhere from a few seconds to several hours." Her eyes widened. Even with the extra power boost from the ZPM, the hull wouldn't be able to last more than 30 minutes.

"Hours?! Rodney! You never said anything about hours!" John barked.

"We're building up serious heat behind the shield." Caldwell said.

Rodney dropped his hands onto his lap. "I told you this wasn't a good plan!"

—-

Rodney and Alice watched the readouts from the engine room. "Temperature inside the shield's rising too fast. I'm already detecting several failed sensors on the bow." Alice reported.

"If this thing keeps going, the heat build-up could damage the hull." Caldwell's voice was tense.

"Not "could." It's already damaging it." Rodney said.

An alarm beeped from the main station. Alice wandered over and checked the screen. "We have a breach in the 302 Bay."

Another alarm beeped. "Another breach. Deck four - we're venting atmosphere." Rodney clicked his finger to Alice, pointing at the next station. Quickly, she set an evacuation order and started sealing off the section.

"Rodney?" John said hesitantly.

"The connection is inefficient." Alice started saying, staring at the ZPM. "Maybe if I reroute-"

But Rodney held up his hand. "It's over." He said so quietly it was almost a whisper.

"And we're not toast." John said excitedly.

"We're not toast!" Rodney repeated in disbelief.

Alice sighed and slipped down onto the deck, wiping a thin sheen of sweat of her forehead.

"Good plan, huh?" John quipped.

Alice shook her head. "That might have been one of the worst."

Once they'd made sure they'd sealed off any section venting atmosphere, they headed back to Atlantis.

Alice stormed towards the bridge, John was just walking off it. He saw her coming and held up his hand.

"This is not the time." John tried to push past her.

She stepped sideways blocking his path. "I'm sorry, but there doesn't seem to be any other time."

"I'm not having this conversation again." He said, keeping his voice low.

"Again?" she shouted. "I must have missed the first time. Why don't you refresh my memory?"

John reached out gripping her arm and leading her away to the side, glancing around at the other personnel watching them. "Keep your voice down."

"Why should I?" Alice ripped her arm out of his grip. "It seems to be the only way to get your attention. You could have gotten everyone killed."

"Well I didn't."

"Yeah you got incredibly lucky." Alice clenched her fists at her side. "You have no idea how close it was."

"And you would have preferred we did nothing?!" John pressed closer to her. "Atlantis is safe, and we're all here. So what is your problem."

"You didn't give us a choice. There could have been a better solution." Alice glared at him. "But you always do this. You make decisions based on assumptions and don't actually think them through." She knew she wasn't just talking about this plan. "You're not always right, and one day it's not going to work."

"Get back to the infirmary. Now." He wasn't shouting anymore. "Get her out of here." A couple of hands grabbed her and lead her back towards the infirmary.

She'd pushed it too far this time.


	36. Chapter 36

**A/N Happy Tuesday/Wednesday!**

 **This chapter might be a little bit of an emotional rollercoaster - especially with the return of everyone's favourite hero: Lucius!**

 **Thank you to everyone whose reviewed my story, it means the world to hear how much you're enjoying it and really motivates me to keep writing.**

"Doctor Riley, please report to the gateroom. Doctor Riley to the gate room."

Alice huffed, barreling her way through the halls. She'd been fast asleep at her desk when she'd been woken up by Radek saying her team had been paged and needed to be geared up for a mission immediately.

No matter how quickly she'd rushed back to her room, grabbed her gear and gotten to the armoury she was still going to be late. As she ran, she was attempting to clip her P90 onto her vest, and her combat knife was clenched between her teeth - sheathed - as she hadn't had time to attach it to her belt.

"I'm here!" She yelled, her voice muffled because of the knife. Ronon, Teyla, Rodney and John were all geared up and turned to stare at her as she burst in. Though to her surprise Carson was also geared up as well, he gave her a warm smile and held his hand out to take the knife out of her mouth. "Thanks." she mumbled, trying not to notice John's exasperated expression.

Elizabeth turned and looked up into the Control Room. "Dial the Gate."

Alice let everyone else step through the gate first, throwing an apologetic look over her shoulder at Elizabeth before stepping through. The planet looked like most she'd experienced, Earth-like but maybe with a bit more greenery and cleaner air.

Unlike in the milky way, there were rarely any structures around the gate and settlements were usually further away or hidden amongst the hills. Most likely so they had time to hear the Wraith before they were culled.

Carson walked beside Alice, keeping pace with her. "You need me to carry anything Doc?" She asked offering out her hand.

"No, I'm fine lass. But thank you." He smiled back at her.

"My childhood hero was Evel Knievel." Alice heard John's voice drifting back to her. This was the first proper mission they'd been on together since they retook Atlantis. A certain uneasiness loomed over her head, they'd not exactly had the best relationship since his return and it certainly hadn't been field tested.

"Beautiful day for a walk. It's planets like these that make me wish I spent more time in the field." Carson gazed around at the trees and the approaching village.

"I guess so." Alice replied half-heartedly, her mind more focused on John.

"You okay dear?"

Before she could reply, a man approached them dipping his head down respectfully. "Good day, travellers."

Teyla took the lead, emulating his greeting. "Good day to you."

It seemed to please the man, as he broke out into a warm smile at Teyla. "This is your first visit to our village?"

"Several of my people have said that you are good and fair traders." Teyla explained. Alice glanced around at the village around them, only a few villagers were paying them any attention so off-world visitors must be a semi-regular occurrence. "My fellow Athosians also speak of a great hero who protects this town."

"Rumour has it he's a warrior with some impressive kills to his credit, including the Wraith." Ronon added.

"This is true." The man smiled.

Ronon grinned, looking back at the team. "Then, uh, there's a good chance he is one of my people."

John threw him a look. Teyla just ignored him, focusing on the villager. "Can you take us to him?"

"Of course." He gestured towards the centre of town. "This way." He led them through an array of buildings and small streets until they opened up into a large central courtyard. A large group of people were gathered around in a circle laughing hysterically. Something seemed awfully familiar to Alice about this scene but she couldn't quite place it. "Here he is - the mightiest of heroes. Our champion protector ..." Their guide pushed through the crowd to reveal a large man sat on a table with his feet propped up on a bench. Alice felt the temperature drop instantly. "... Lucius Lavin."

Lucius looked up away from his adoring crowd to see who had said his name. His eyes widened and his lips pulled into a broad grin. "Well! Will you look who it is?!"

"You've got to be kidding me!" Ronon groaned.

Alice had to stop herself from scowling, her mind filling with images of their last encounter earlier this year. Lucius stood up, opening up his arms as if he wanted to embrace them. Alice's hand twitched on her gun, as did Teyla and Ronon's.

Lucius seemed to get the hint, dropping his arms down, but his grin didn't fade. He turned to the crowd who all seem to be enthralled in the interaction between them and Lucius. "My friends, please let us make room for our honoured guests."

A few villagers brought over chairs and offered them to the team. Alice looked to John for his order. He seemed conflicted, but he nodded and took a seat. Keeping his hands on his gun, giving off a quiet intimidating look. He looked at Carson and jerked his head at Lucius. With a grimace, Carson took his backpack off and started prepping his medical kit. The others all took seats and listened as Lucius started telling his story.

"As I lay there, the iratus bug's tendrils just grasping my throat, choking me, I could feel my very life essence ebb and wane. With every passing second, I could feel myself drawing closer to death." Lucius exclaimed dramatically.

The story seemed to be going on forever. Alice had instantly noticed it wasn't one of Lucius' old stories. A permanent scowl marred her features as she listened. He seemed to have taken his time at Atlantis to pad out his stories. Alice was slumped in her seat, her foot bouncing up and down, she didn't want to be here a second longer than she needed.

Ronon was sitting across from her on a table beside Lucius, his head in his hand. Carson was standing on the other side of Lucius, preparing his arm to take a blood sample. Teyla and Rodney were both sitting on chairs nearby, both similarly slumped in a position of boredom and disgust.

"Now, had I been the only one in that building - the only one in that burning building ..." Lucius exclaimed, Alice snickered as Ronon briefly raised his head giving John a look that said Let me kill him now! "... I would have surrendered and allowed sleep to overtake me. But there were women and children there with me whose very survival lay in my hands, and I'm not about to let them down." Alice fiddled with the pockets of her tac vest opening and closing the different sections and counting the things inside them. "So I reached deep down within me and I summoned whatever strength I had and I grabbed that bug and I ripped him away, and through sheer force of will I began to choke him and strangle ... ow, ow!" Alice raised her eyes to see Carson had stuck the needle into Lucius' arm. "Ow! Ow! Thought you said that wasn't gonna hurt!"

Alice rolled her eyes, the fact this low life had effectively taken over Atlantis still baffled her. "I lied." Carson said callously as he drew the needle back out. It was funny to see the normally gentle doctor lashing out at his patient. She was just glad it wasn't her.

"Ow." Lucius whined as Carson lifted his arm to stop the blood flow. He cleared his throat, aware at the crowd around him. "And I - I sprang up and I led them all to safety."All around her the townspeople cheered and applauded. Alice took in a slow breath, her jaw clenched, she didn't understand what anyone saw in Lucius. He was overweight, with beady eyes and crooked teeth. Now if he'd looked more like John then… she stopped thinking. "Thank you very much! Thank you! I appreciate it. Thanks very much."

John took out a piece of grass from of his mouth. "How?"

Lucius looked over baffled at John. "What?"

"How'd you lead the people to safety?" John pressed.

"You said the way out was blocked." Ronon added, enjoying it a little too much. Alice couldn't help but smirk as Lucius floundered.

Lucius gave them both a look. He scratched behind his ear. "Oh, you were listening. That's good, that's good - because it was." His eyes darted back at the townspeople. "It was blocked - until I cleared a path through the burning wreckage ..." The townspeople gasped in awe. "... and, ignoring the searing heat and the flames that were just swirling and swirling ..."

John cleared his throat. "But how did you, uh ...?"

Lucius clapped his hands together. "OK. That's enough reminiscing for today." His voice high pitched and squeaky. The townspeople groaned, clearly not hearing the panic in his voice. "Believe me, there's plenty more where that story came from, so when we gather tomorrow, I'll tell you about how I was almost seduced by a beautiful Ancient!"

Alice felt her blood run cold, if he was really using Atlantis mission briefings for his inspiration, that meant he was talking about John and Chaya. Alice dropped her head to the ground, not wanting to look up at John. The townspeople murmured excitedly as they headed back to their usual routine.

"Sounds entertaining!" Carson said sarcastically.

"Yeah, you'd think so, but between you and me, not so much." Lucius sighed.

"You know, your stories are awfully fascinating, and familiar." John said.

Alice raised her head to look back at Lucius. "Alright." He checked around, probably to make sure that none of the townspeople were in earshot. "I admit - I took some inspiration from some of the mission reports that I perused while I was on Atlantis, but I spiced 'em: a little story here, bit of a story there ..." he whispered.

"Alright, I'm done here." Carson snapped his case closed.

Lucius leaned back and crossed his arms over his chest. "Well, you're not gonna find any trace of that special herb in my system. I learned my lesson the last time, thanks to all of you."

"You mean these people aren't drugged - they simply adore you for who you are?!" Alice raised an eyebrow cynically.

"Yeah." He grinned at her, his eyes running over her body. "Innit great?" Alice grimaced, she felt like she needed to go take a shower. Lucius' smile faded. "You don't believe me."

Carson started opening another case. "Well, Lucius, I have a lab set up, so I think I'll just run the tests anyway."

Lucius just shrugged. "You're wasting your time. In all modesty, these people love me, pure and true."

"Lucius, you can't say anything modestly!" John stressed.

"I saved them." Lucius said seriously. Alice and Ronon exchanged a sarcastic glance. "A couple of months ago this bunch of ruffians come into town, start causing trouble. I beat 'em up, I chase 'em away, and all of a sudden I'm the town hero. They give me gifts; the women are throwing themselves at me..." Alice coughed uncomfortably. "... It's like the old days, except better, because now they're not drugged."

Rodney held up his hand. "Hang on, hang on. So you beat them up."

"Yes! Me! I did!" Lucius stuck out his chest proudly.

"How'd you manage that?" Ronon asked.

"It's not so hard ..." he said casually. "when you're invincible." He grinned at the team. "I'm invincible."

John laughed. "Right!"

"Alright. Looks like this is gonna take some convincing." He slid off the table and peered around the square. "Let me see." Nearby three men were hoisting a large pallet of sacks in the air. "Hey! Time for a demonstration." He waltzed over until he was standing underneath the pallet.

Teyla stood up. "What is he ...?"

Alice followed after her to look, unsure of what was happening, as Lucius waved to the me. "Let it go." John stood up and took off his sunglasses. The men shared a hesitant look with each other, none let go. "Trust me. Trust me." Lucius laughed. The men released the rope and the pallet plunged towards the ground. Alice covered her mouth as she watched it break over Lucius' head, white flour erupted all around him. Her head snapped around to share a wide eyed glance with Carson, but neither of them moved. She looked back as a familiar green shimmer was briefly visible before the dust cleared and Lucius was stood there completely unharmed.

The villagers and Rodney gasped. "Oh, my God!" But Alice realised where she'd seen that green shimmer before.

Nonchalantly, Lucius stepped forward and looked at Ronon, pointing to his own head. "Hit me."

"Don't!" John warned, he must have made the same connection Alice had.

"C'mon." Lucius goaded.

"Really Ronon...I wouldn't" Alice tried, but Ronon was already off the table and sauntering over to grinning. He squared up to Lucius, then threw a hard punch at him. Alice winced as his fist impacted a green glow just before it reaches his face. Ronon's face crumpled in pain, he turned away clutching his injured fist and trying not to cry out.

"See? Invincible." Lucius waggled his eyebrows smugly. Ronon let out a whine of pain. "I can't be vinced." Lucius laughed watching Ronon. If it had been anyone else Alice would have offered to help and see if they'd broken anything. But this was Ronon, if she did anything he'd only take it as a further insult to his pride, and she was sure he was already feeling embarrassed enough. Lucius jerked his head to a building. "How about a drink then?"

Alice followed behind the others in what turned out to be a tavern. Carson stayed to run his tests and confirm Lucius' story.

Lucius led them over to a table near the back, private enough where the villagers couldn't over hear them. "It's so great to see you all. I'd heard rumours you'd left Atlantis."

John grimaced. "You can't believe everything you hear."

Lucius bopped his head up and down in agreement. Then he narrowed his eyes and examined them all individually. "Something's different." He waggled a finger between Alice and John, a broad grin spreading across his face. "You dumped him."

Alice felt her face flush instantly, but she tried to keep her expression emotionless. John cleared his throat. "The shield Lucius."

Lucius kept grinning his eyes roaming over Alice, then he reached into his pocket and pulled out a small green device no bigger than his palm. "As it turns out, I had this personal shield all along. It was a gift from one of my many admirers back at the old village - you know, before I was forced to pack up and leave, thank you very much!" He gave John a pointed glare. "Anyway, I didn't even know what it was until I went to Atlantis. I perused some of the mission reports about the Ancient device that you guys discovered ..."

"You did an awful lot of perusing while you were on the base." Rodney muttered.

Lucius smiled, shrugging his shoulders. "I peruse. It's a gift." Rodney grimaced in response. Lucius looked around at the barmaid as she passed by with a jug. "Hey, sweetheart. What'd you say you come by my place tonight ...?"

"No thanks." She didn't even blink before dismissing him. Alice raised an eyebrow, this was the first sure sign she'd seen that proved Lucius wasn't using the herb still.

The woman started to walk on but Lucius held his hand out to stop her. "Wait, wait, wait, wait. I'm the town hero!" He whined. Always an attractive quality in a man, she thought dryly.

The waitress rolled her eyes, pulling her arm away from him. "That was ages ago."

Lucius looked back to the team, looking slightly ashamed, but mostly unbothered. "Let me tell you something. You're only as good as your last rescue." He sighed, then raised an eyebrow at Alice, his body leaning in towards her. "Well now you're available. How 'bout you gorgeous?"

Alice scowled, and Lucius suddenly flinched away. She was almost certain John had kicked him under the table.

"How is it that you're able to operate the Ancient technology without the A.T.A. gene?" Rodney raised an eyebrow, as Lucius bent over to rub his leg.

Lucius waved his hand. "Oh, that was easy. All I had to do was find a guy with the gene, have him initiate the device. I mean, it took a long time but, you know, once it was done, I could activate this thing any time I wanted." He smiled proudly.

John leaned back in his chair. "Fascinating! You do know those things run out of juice eventually, don't you?"

"Come on - these Ancient things last forever." He grins at the team. "Look, lunch is on me." He dropped some coins onto a plate and stood up. "I'm gonna go take a walk. If I don't see you before you leave, well, then, I'll just, uh, well, I'll talk to you later."

John set his gun down on the table. "We're not going anywhere 'til we get those test results."

Lucius shrugged. "Whatever you want. People to save. And if you change your mind..." He winked at Alice and walked out of the pub.

John and Teyla both sighed. "Well, what do you think?" John let his eyes pass over all of them.

"Perhaps he's learned a lesson." Teyla said hesitantly.

"Unlikely." Alice muttered.

"He's Lucius! Are you kidding me?" Rodney shrieked.

"Well, he's made a lot of mistakes in the past, but who hasn't?" He gave a pointedly look at Rodney.

"Why are you looking at me?"

John rolled his eyes. "Look, at least he's trying to do something good in order to get people to like him this time."

Alice gestured her head behind John as Carson walked in. "Well, I've completed my tests. Looks like Lucius is telling the truth. No traces of the drug in his system. He's clean."

John smiled and picked up his gun. "That's our cue to leave." He pushed his chair back and stood up.

"Woah-whoa-whoa-whoa-whoa, wait. Am I the only person here who thinks he is taking advantage of these poor people?" Rodney looked around the table.

"C'mon, Rodney - you just want another crack at that shield." John chided.

"You're damned right I do! Look, it could come in extremely handy."Alice, Teyla and Ronon all exchanged a glance and got to their feet, heading for the door. "It's practically wasting it!" Rodney yelled after them.

They walked outside, John led them over to the original villager who had greeted them. "Where's Lucius?"

The man pointed off into the forest. "He went out for a stroll. He should be returning shortly."

"Well, whenever he gets back, tell him we said goodbye." John flicked his hand and they started heading towards the gate.

Once again Alice hung at the back of the group with Carson. She watched Ronon speed up to walk by John speaking lowly to him.

Nearby, a woman screamed in terror. Alice raised her gun in the direction, holding her arm out to push Carson behind her. A group of men entered into the courtyard, weapons drawn. Alice glanced over her shoulder to see more men approaching from behind her. Keeping her arm out she guided Carson into the middle of a defensive circle. The rest of the team had their guns raised at each direction, but they were surrounded.

The men in front of Alice were dressed in dusty brown jackets with guns that looked like old fashion revolvers. Alice checked her left and right, Ronon and Teyla were on either side. One man stepped ahead of the others, point his gun at Alice's head. His hair was long and unkept, like he'd been living rough, but the condition of his skin told her he hadn't always lived like that. He had bright green eyes, and although she wasn't sure why, but his face seemed familiar.

"Drop your weapons or die where you stand." Alice drew in calm breaths, her gun trained on the speaker, he was obviously the leader, if she could take him out... but they were outnumbered. From where she stood she counted at least eight men, and that's only the ones she could see. The square was also still filled with a number of villagers, any fire fight would definitely result in casualties. Alice bit down on her lip. The man pulled back the firing pin on the gun. "I said drop your weapons."

"We're not lookin' for a fight. We're just passing through town." John called out. The man's eyes flickered to Alice's left where John must've been standing.

"I've got three here." She whispered to Ronon.

"I've got two on my right and one straight dead ahead." Ronon said in a hushed tone.

"Two at twelve o'clock and one behind the fruit stand." She barely heard John, but her eyes darted to the nearby fruit stand. Sure enough a man was crouched down holding a gun ready to fire.

"If we act now, we risk injuring innocent villagers." Carson whispered from behind her.

"And us! We risk injuring us!" She heard Rodney complain.

"I can take my three out before they get a shot off." Ronon tensed next to her.

"Carson's right. The risk is too big." Her hands tightened on her gun. She hated not being able to do anything.

"There may be others hidden where we cannot see." Teyla added.

Alice let her eyes slowly drift up, she couldn't see any movement, but that didn't mean anything. These men looked like they knew the layout of the town well. This probably wasn't their first time doing this.

"Here's the thing: if we all start shootin' at each other, somebody's bound to get hurt." John said loudly. The leader shifted back slightly so he could see John. "I can pretty much guarantee you'll be one of 'em."

The leader pointed his gun towards John. "Are you this hero we've heard rumours of?"

A moment of silence passed, before John replied. "No."

The man frowned then looked around and pointed his gun at the barmaid standing nearby. "Come here." He walked over and grabbed her, dragging her across the square so they were in front of John, and then put his pistol at her head. "Then lower your weapons." Alice kept her gun pointed at the men directly in front of her, watching John out of her peripheral. When John didn't say anything the man pointed the barrel at his head.

Alice felt her body tense, she quickly memorised the positions of the men she could see. If she was lucky she might be able to get two of them before they started firing. Then she needed to get Carson out of the line of fire. "OK." John said casually.

Alice blinked, wondering if she'd heard him correctly. Since when did they just give in.

"Sheppard?" Ronon questioned.

"Trust me on this one." Slowly John kneeled down and put his gun out in front of him. Everything in Alice's instincts told her not to get down on her knees, but reluctantly she took her finger off the trigger and slowly dropped down onto her knees. Unclipping her gun she put it down in the dirt. The men rushed forward pulling her arms behind her back, the others all did the same.

The leader dragged the barmaid forward, still holding a gun on her. "So where is this hero - one who'd surely stop us from emptying the town's coffers, helping ourselves to its women, burning it to the ground once we're done?" He shouted around at the terrified townspeople. "So tell me - where is he?! Where is this great hero who'd keep us from destroying everything you hold dear?"

"He's right here!" Lucius appeared at the end of the courtyard. Alice narrowed her eyes, looked around at John who was rolling his eyes. Something weird was going on, something that John had picked up. "For I am the man you seek."

The leader released the woman and aimed his pistol at Lucius. "Kill him!" To Alice's surprise instead of firing their guns, the men grabbed some planks of wood and rushed towards Lucius. They encircled him and started trying to hit him, but Lucius just stood there as his shield shimmered around him. The last plank shattered and the men all stood still, Lucius then dramatically put one arm behind his back, beckoning a man closer. Alice felt like she was watching some low budget community theatre skit.

The man ran at him and Lucius punched him to the ground, backhanding the man behind him on his backswing. Each of the other men ran at him and Lucius punched each one down, tossing the last two into the walled pond in the middle of the square. Not one of them grabbed their guns, which had been holstered on their belts. "Get out! And don't come back!" The men stumbled to their feet and staggered out of the town square. "For so long as I protect these people, this town shall be safe." Lucius declared.

The townspeople cheered and rushed towards Lucius to hug him. Alice looked at her team mates, all of them had similar shocked expression, except John who was smirking. Rolling onto her back, she lifter her legs to her chest and pulled her bound hands around so they were in-front of her. Using her teeth she pulled the knot out and freed her hands.

She turned to help Ronon, but he'd already pulled his apart and was helping John. So she went to Carson helping him undo his ties. Once he was free she grabbed her gun from the ground and re-clipped it onto her vest.

The townspeople all started chanting Lucius' name and heading towards the tavern, most likely to celebrate his glorious victory. "What the hell was that?" Alice huffed. The team were back on their feet, Rodney was dusting the dirt off his pants. "why didn't they shoot him?"

John cocked his gun. "They weren't loaded, it was a stunt."

Alice turned back to look as Lucius' disappearing crowd. Now it made sense, why John ordered them to drop their weapons. It was because there hadn't been a threat.

John explained his plan and then went with the others into the tavern to bid their farewells to Lucius. Alice stayed outside with Carson. "You doing alright m'dear?"

Alice blinked. "Of course. This kinda stuff happens a lot actually."

"No. Not that. I meant with Colonel Sheppard." Carson rubbed the back of his neck. "I heard about what happened between you two."

Alice took a breath. "Yeah, you and the whole city." She didn't want to look at Carson and potentially give away more than she wanted to. "I'm fine."

"Let's move out." John came striding across the courtyard with a pissed Ronon hot on his heels.

"Yes sir." Alice muttered, allowing him and Ronon to take the lead. She caught a glimpse of Carson giving her a sympathetic look, but she kept her chin up and pretended not to see it.

They headed out into the woods just outside the village and took cover, John wanted to prove his theory and the best way to do that was by following Lucius. It wasn't long before Lucius appeared at the edge of the village, seemingly casually taking a walk and look around. Once he was sure none of the villagers had followed after him and sheepishly made his way into the trees.

Ronon led the way, easily following Lucius' trail but keeping them far enough away so as not to arouse his suspicions. They followed him across a bridge into a small clearing where an abandoned barn stood. Sitting on the ground outside the barn were the men who'd attacked the village. John flicked his fingers, Alice nodded and took up a position on the left flank, hidden amongst the trees but in a good position to hear and act, if needed.

The leader noticed Lucius arrival and stood up as he approached. Lucius held out his hands. "Nice job, everybody! Very convincing."

"A little too convincing. You took out three of Lanko's teeth and broke Fortnum's wrist." The man pointed to his injured comrades.

Lucius shrugged. "Hey, I had to make it look good." He reached into his inner jacket pocket. "Anyway, here's a little something that may make it worthwhile." He pulled out a small bag that jingled when he moved it, most likely gold coins Alice thought.

The leader took it and opened it. "This isn't the amount we agreed on."

"Yeah, well, to tell you the truth, you guys didn't really seem to have your hearts in it."

"We had a deal." The man's voice hardened.

"Maybe next time you'll make more of an effort."

"How dare you speak down to us? We were elite soldiers in the Genii army - Cowen's personal guard." The man stepped forward threateningly. Alice craned her neck to throw Ronon a look, no wonder they looked familiar, the leader was a man named Haemon. She'd seen his picture up in Ladon's personal office back on the Genii homeworld. These men had managed to escape during the take over and they'd been searching for them ever since. These men were dangerous.

Lucius squared up to him. "Yeah, you were. Now you're mercenaries. C'mon - as far as jobs for hire go, this wasn't so bad. You come in, you scare a few people, you take a few punches, then you leave. You get paid, nobody gets hurt ... well, except for Lanko, and of course Fortnum with his gimpy wrist." He turned to one of the men who had just put his arm in a sling. "Sorry about that, buddy."

"We may have been forced from our homes when Ladon Radim took power. We're still Genii, and one of these days we'll march into the capital and retake what was ours." Alice swallowed, they needed to report this back to Ladon, he'd be very thankful to finally take these guys out.

"Yeah, well, good luck with that." Lucius patted him on the shoulder and turned to head back the way he'd come. Once Lucius was out of sight, Alice crept her way back to John. Then she gestured with her head to move away so they could talk.

"They're Genii!?" Rodney whispered.

"The leader, his name is Haemon." Alice said. "Ladon and his men have been looking for them, they managed to escape during the mutiny." John face pulled into a frown. Alice knew he still had a deep seated distrust of Ladon, especially since he'd heard how close she'd become to him when he had been back on Earth. She cleared her throat knowing what she was about to say next wasn't going to go down well. "We should inform Ladon, he can come in with his men and handle the situation. This isn't our fight."

John's jaw was clenched shut. "No. Lucius is our problem, we'll handle this."

"But these men are wanted criminals, we-" Alice was cut off by John standing up and walking away. She sighed exasperatedly, he wouldn't even hear her out. "Where are you going?" She whispered, as John headed across the bridge into the clearing of the Genii.

—

Alice couldn't say she agreed with this plan. They were trusting men who had betrayed their people, who Ladon had warned her had done despicable crimes against humanity in Cowen's service. But John wouldn't listen to her.

John led the way back into the village square where Lucius was once again surrounded by a enthralled crowd, but he spotted them almost immediately. "Hey! Hey, what are you doing back here? I thought you left town?"

"Well, we were leaving when we ran into this gentleman who has a very interesting story to tell." John stepped aside to reveal Fortnum.

Lucius' eyes widened at him in panic, then turned nervously to the townspeople. "Uh, speaking of stories, um ... did I ever tell you the story about the time that I was on this planet made entirely of lava ..."

"The show's over Lucius." Alice snapped.

"You lied to these people." Ronon growled.

John addressed the townspeople. "This man's not a hero. He paid those men to show up and then made it look like he came to your rescue."

"It's true. It was all a set-up to make him look like he saved the town." Fortnum said.

Lucius bowed his head, his face cringing as he prepared for the outcry from the villagers. One man stood up and stares angrily towards them. "Deceiver!"

John shrugged. "Well, you do have every right to be upset with him."

"Not him - you." The man pointed at John.

"Me?"

"Unable to accept the shame of surrendering to those raiders ..." the man strode close to them, putting his hand on Lucius' shoulder. "he chooses to besmirch our Lucius."

The townspeople nod and murmur angrily as Lucius raised his head hopefully. "The whole thing was an act!The guns weren't even loaded!" John tried to reason.

"If it were not for Lucius, you and your friends would all be dead." Another villager yelled.

"No, no! He tricked you! You don't know him like we do." Carson tried to say.

"We're the good guys." Rodney whimpered.

The townspeople scoff and starting pressing in towards the team, protesting angrily. Alice could just see Lucius watching with a smug smile on his face. "That's enough." He called out, holding his hands up in the air. "These people are our honoured guests. Come with me." He gestured towards a nearby house.

The mob allowed them to pass through peacefully into what Alice assumed was Lucius' home. Two women followed with them, and proceeded to pour out water into bowls and kneel at the edge of Lucius bed. Lucius kicked off his shoes and flopped onto his bed, wiggling his toes and giggling at the two women, who started cleaning and massaging him.

Alice watched disgusted, trying to swallow the bile rising in her throat. "Listen, I wanna apologise for the whole angry mob thing." Lucius said finally.

"I suppose we should be grateful." Teyla said reluctantly.

"Yes, well, he did stop them from swarming us." Rodney agreed.

Alice turned away gagging. She moved to the window and looked, the mob had disbanded and people seemed to have gone back to the normal business.

"Just consider it my way of saying all is forgiven." Lucius said.

"Alright, I'm putting a stop to this." John snapped irritated.

"Oh, c'mon! They just got started!" Lucius whined.

"I'm not talkin' about the foot massage ... actually, I am talkin' about the foot massage!"

"Alright, alright. Girls, come back later, alright?" Lucius said, Alice glanced over shoulder and watched the women pack up and head out of the house.

"This little scam of yours ..." John continued.

"Scam? What scam?" Lucius said indignantly.

"You are taking advantage of these people." Teyla snapped.

"I know it looks that way, but I was being honest about that bunch of thugs that attacked this village a couple of months ago. You know, this is a nice town, nice people, and they needed somebody to save 'em, so I did. I was a hero! Now, today's incident ..." Lucius grinned.

"You mean performance." Alice turned back to the window, pulling the curtain back so she could see the edge of the village. A flash of movement caught her attention, but it was hidden behind a building.

"It was just my way of reminding them of that fact, but I insisted the guns not be loaded so nobody would get hurt." Lucius continued behind her.

"That was nice of you!" John said sarcastically.

Alice narrowed her eyes as she saw it again. "John..." she said hesitantly trying to get his attention.

"Yeah - then you had to go and figure it all out." Lucius complained.

"You're goin' out there right now and you're gonna come clean with these people." John said in a low threatening voice.

"John!" She said more forcefully.

"Not now Riley." John snapped at her.

The village erupted with the sound of gunfire and screaming. Alice whipped her head around to John. "I was trying to tell you."

John was glaring at Lucius accusingly. Lucius held up his hands. "It's not me this time, I swear."

The gunfire continued as the townspeople run screaming. Alice moved to the side of the window, hiding herself as she watched a group of Genii soldiers, this time in uniform, walking into the town square wielding Genii rifles. John came to stand beside her. That's when Alice's eyes widened in shock. "Kolya!"

John walked over to the back window. "The soldiers are Genii. They're part of a ..."

"Oh, I know all about Kolya and the Genii. When I was on Atlantis, I perused ..." Lucius interrupted.

"... mission reports, right, right." John finished.

"This is very bad." Carson mumbled.

"No, no, this is great. This'll be a great opportunity for me to solidify my place in the community. They're gonna give me a parade after this one!" He turned towards the door.

John darted across to stop him. "Hey, hang on! You're not takin' on Kolya and his men!"

"Why not? They can't hurt me. I've got the personal shield." He clapped his hand over his jacket.

"And if they burn the town down around you out of spite?" Alice tilted her head, pulling her gun up. From where she was she didn't have a clear shot on any of them.

"Well, that'd be petty of 'em."

"Yeah, well, they're like that." John said sarcastically.

"Obviously somebody tipped them off that we're here." Ronon was pressed up against the wall, peering out into the square.

"Gee, i wonder who..." Alice couldn't help muttering.

"So go ahead - shoot him." Lucius gestured towards the door.

"That's a good idea." John cocked his rifle and headed for the door.

"John, you can't." Teyla gave him a stern look.

"This is Kolya." John stressed.

"We can't just let him leave." Alice said glancing at Teyla.

"The shooting will not stop them."

Ronon stepped forward. "She's right. We'll have to kill 'em all." He looked at John. "I'm alright with that, by the way."

"Good! Let's do it." John started for the door again.

"John." Teyla warned.

"What?!" He snapped back.

"You can't." She held John's blazing gaze.

"Oh, I'm pretty sure I can. In fact ..." he sneered.

"If we engage in open fire with them, then many of these townspeople will certainly be killed. They do not deserve to die because of us." John grimaced at Teyla's words. "If they search the town and cannot find us, then they will simply move on."

Carson held up his hand. "Nobody gets hurt. That's my vote, and my heartfelt recommendation."

"You wanna hide." John was still glaring at Teyla.

"Well, we could call it strategic concealment." Rodney offered.

Lucius smiled and clicked his fingers. "I got just the place."

"I'm sure you do!" John rolled his eyes

Lucius walked across to a grandfather clock and opened the glass over the face. "Here." He pushed the minute hand down to the 'half-past' position and closes the glass. The wall behind the clock opened to reveal a secret room. "See, I like to entertain and on occasion a husband'll get angry, come lookin' for his wife, so to avoid an awkward scenario ..."

"OK, we get it." Reluctantly, he jerked his head to the team. Alice bit her lip, taking one last look out the window at Kolya and his men, before following the others into the room.

"I'll let you know when the bad guys clear out." Lucius started to close the door but John turned back to him.

"Don't screw around, Lucius, alright? Tell 'em we've moved on. Once they get out of town and they're out in the open, we'll deal with it ourselves. This is no time to be a hero, you understand?" John gave him a pointed glare.

"Perfectly." Lucius said in a sing-song voice.

"I'm serious." John threatened.

"I can see that! No heroics." Lucius put his hand over his heart. John scowled but stepped back allowing Lucius to close the door.

He looked back at the others. Alice paced back and forth in the small room. "Do you really trust Lucius? This is the man who has no moral compass." Alice was seething.

"Of course not." John snapped examining the edge of the doorway. "We need to move."

"And then what? We need a plan, Kolya's gotten the best of us three times now."

"I'll figure something out." John snapped back.

"We wouldn't even be in this situation if you'd just listened to me in the first place." Alice spat at him, feeling blood pulsing in her ears.

John whipped around to face her, his face contorted in anger. His hand on his gun he took a threatening step towards Alice. Ronon stepped in his path, putting his hand on John's shoulder.

"That's enough." Teyla looked between them. "This is not the time, nor the place."

Alice bit down on her lip and turned around away from John. She could hear John muttering something and then the click of the door opening. "Let's move." He growled out.

She followed out behind Ronon quietly making their way into the house next door. Alice barged past John, knocking into his shoulder taking up a position looking down in the courtyard.

Her view wasn't much better than before, market stalls blocked a lot of her view, but she could see Lucius being held face down into a barrel of water. Trust Kolya to come up with one of the few ways to torture someone with an invulnerable shield.

She couldn't make out what they were saying, but she didn't suspect it would take long for Lucius to break. He wasn't exactly known for his pain tolerance. Haemon walked across the square to sneer at Lucius. Alice felt her blood pressure rise again, if John had just listened to her.

Only a few minutes later, Kolya and several men stormed with Lucius into his house.

"Well, that didn't take too long. Alright, let's get out of this town, set up a decent ambush without all these people around." John ordered, his voice calmer now.

Alice nodded curtly and grabbed Carsons' bags out of the house.

—

Alice took cover in a house just off from the main square. Carson was with her. They'd attempted to make their way out of the village and back to the gate, but Kolya's men had the town locked down tight - if there was only one or two of them, then they might have been able to sneak past. But not a big group.

And since they were stuck here for the time being, John had decided they couldn't let Kolya kill Lucius, Alice didn't exactly understand that bit. Though she knew Carson wouldn't have let them abandon him. So here they were.

The team had spread out across the town to make it harder to detect them, while John went for Lucius.

Carson was sat in a chair tapping his foot nervously. "Carson, please." Alice whispered.

"Sorry..." He placed his hands on top of his leg, but Alice could see them trembling as well.

"I'm not going to let them do anything to you. Okay?" She tried to give him a reassuring smile, that was until she heard the explosion.

A Genii soldier came bursting into the house from the back door. Alice rushed him grabbing his gun, not wanting to use her gun and draw more attention to them. The soldier was strong, he kept his grip on the gun, trying to wrestle it off her. Alice thrust her knee up catching him in the stomach. As he bent over she crashed her elbow into the back of his, sending him to the ground with a dull thump. Picking up his gun she placed it in the back of her trousers. "Come on, we need to move." Alice grabbed Carson's arm hauling him up.

"Alice!" Carson cried just as Alice felt an explosion of pain in her face. She dropped to the floor just managing to catch herself with her hands. She spluttered out a mouthful of blood, the leftside of her cheek felt like it had been split open.

Grabbing her gun she fired a shot at the man's foot. He yelled in pain, but more soldiers filed into the small room jumping straight for her. Alice struggled, fighting back as hard as she could, until a gun shot rang out. She froze on the spot. "Enough. Or your friend dies." One of the Genii had Carson with a gun to his head. Carson's eyes were wide with fear as he glanced between the gun and Alice, pleading for her to submit.

Slowly she raised her hands, immediately two soldiers grabbed her hands twisting them harshly behind her back. Alice winced in pain, but kept her lips pressed together to stop herself from making a sound. The soldiers led them out of the building and back into the main square. Alice could see the others on being dragged towards her. None of them looked hurt though, seems she'd be the only one stupid enough to try to fight her way out of it. Her cheek throbbed and she could feel blood dripping slowly down her face and neck.

She looked around towards Kolya, expecting him to be standing over John. But instead he was standing in front of the smouldering tavern. Alice did a quick double check, Telya, Ronon and Rodney were all off to her left but she couldn't see John anywhere. Loud coughing made her turn back towards Kolya. Lucius was stumbling out of the ruins. "What, are you crazy?! You could have killed me!"

"That shield of yours impresses me more and more. You did your part, Lucius. You get to live another day." Kolya said, then turned to walk over to Haemon. "Sheppard?"

Haemon shook his head. "He got away." Alice smirked, that would piss Kolya off to no end, and it meant they still had a good chance of getting out of this.

"That's unfortunate." Kolya raised his pistol and fired it at Haemon's heart, Alice tensed, but the gun just clicked.

Haemon stared at him wide-eyed, then sighed with relief. "Thanks for sparing me, sir."

"Don't disappoint me again." Kolya said, his face hard. Alice didn't think he sparred him on purpose. He turned back to face Alice and her team. "Secure the prisoners. Perhaps they'll be more effective bait." One of the Genii pushed Alice forward, but Kolya held up his hand. "Not her."

"Get your hands off her!" Ronon roared. Alice glanced at her teammates, Ronon struggled but it was no use. They were led off deeper into the village.

She didn't take her eyes off them until all she could hear was Ronon grunting. Then she turned back to Kolya. "He's not going to let you live this time."

Kolya laughed. "No I wouldn't expect so. But that's only if I don't get to him first." He handed his gun to another soldier. "Get that fixed." Alice clenched her jaw, she'd been right, he had no intention of sparring Haemon. "now Captain Riley, we're going to have a talk."

"It's Doctor now." She struggled against the man gripping her wrists. "And I'm not going to tell you anything."

Kolya smirked. "We'll see about that." He stepped forward, reaching his hand out. Alice flinched back, but there was nowhere she could go. Kolya's hand pushed her hair back and pinched the small earpiece, pulling it free from her ear. Then he jerked his head to the soldier. "Take her inside and restrain her."

"You're not getting out of here alive Kolya!" She yelled as the solider dragged her towards the house Kolya's men had set up as their base. "Do you hear me Kolya!"

The man threw her in the doorway and into chair. Another solider came in behind them and held her shoulders down as they tied her hands behind her back. "She's secure." The Genii let go and Alice struggled, but the ropes were too tight. If she struggled too much she'd end up cutting into her wrists.

A few minutes later, Kolya stepped through the door and smug look on his face. Alice narrowed her eyes glaring daggers at him, as he removed his hat and rubbed his forehead. "Doctor Riley, its been some time since we last saw each other." He pulled up a chair and sat down opposite her.

"Can't say I've missed you." She spat.

Kolya laughed. "No, but in that time my sources have told me you've spent quite some time in Ladon Radim's service." His face hardened. Alice clenched her jaw. "There's no need to deny it. My contacts are quite reliable, and they tell me Ladon seemed to place a great deal of trust in you." He smirked. "For instance, giving you the codes and details of the Genii security grid."

Alice steeled herself, keeping her jaw slammed shut. Kolya wasn't above torture, they'd seen that already. So she knew what her silence could cost her, but they'd worked so hard and come so far with Ladon and the new Genii regime. She couldn't betray them.

Kolya smirked. "I also know about your relationship with Colonel Sheppard. Did you know that when he was delusional with pain after being fed upon all he could say was your name."

Alice did her best to keep her face neutral, but she could feel her blood turning to ice. "I'm not telling you anything." Every word made the pain in her cheek worse, but she tried to ignore it.

Kolya nodded slowly. "Even if it meant saving the lives of your team." She wasn't sure if he was bluffing or not. If he wanted to kill John then using the team as bait was his best option, but he couldn't do that and kill them off to threaten her. It all depended on what he wanted more, John dead or the codes for the Genii base. "Very well."

He stood up, Alice struggled in her chair. "Kolya! Where are you going?" She said her voice filling with panic. but he didn't answer. Alice twisted her hands trying to free them, but the rope just cut into her wrists. "Kolya!?"

Alice tried to keep track of how much time passed, but there was nothing she could use. It could have been 20 minutes or an hour, but Kolya walked back in cracking his fingers. She watched him approach him warily, his lips twisted up. Then his fist shot out and connected with the side of her face. She had no time to prepare herself, or stop the cry of pain from escaping her lips.

"Tell me the command codes." He said curtly. Alice's head hung to the side limply. A mix of blood and saliva started dripping out of her mouth. Her head spun and she felt like she might be sick. "Tell me the codes." His hand gripped her hair pulling her head up to look at him. She spat a mouthful of blood in his face, causing him to recoil in disgust. The he started chuckling. "I have to say I admire your loyalty to Ladon. However misplaced."

Alice licked her lips, tasting the rusty tang of her blood. "What would you know about loyalty."

Kolya shrugged. "Shall we test your Colonel's loyalty to you?" He picked up the earpiece he'd taken off her earlier and pressed it to his ear. "Colonel Sheppard?" Kolya said. "I'm going to assume you can hear me. I'm also going to assume that if you haven't reached the Gate by now, you soon will, so I wanna save you some trouble. My men have secured the Gate. There's no way you're getting through. Come back and face me, Colonel - or I'll kill your friends." He paused and raised a gun at Alice. She took in a sharp breath, glaring daggers at Kolya. "Which one of them shall we kill first? I'm leaning towards your mouthy girlfriend, myself. Colonel?" John must have replied, as a smug smile twisted Kolya's features. "Don't keep me waiting." He dropped the earpiece down on the table.

"You won't kill me." Alice let out a huff. "You need those codes."

Kolya shrugged. "True it would be easier to get them from you. But not the only way." Grabbing another chair he dragged it over to face her, then sat down. "Ladon Radim is no hero, and he is certainly not the man you think he is."

Alice scoffed. "I think I spent enough time with him to know exactly what kind of man he is." She drew her mouth back into a sneer. "And he's something you'll never be. The leader of the Genii."

Kolya struck out hitting Alice in the face. Her neck snapped back and she heard a distinctive crack of her nose breaking. Blood flooded her nasal passage and she gasped for breath as it started flowing down the back of her throat. Rolling her head around she let her head drop forward, changing the direction of the blood so it now dripped out of her nose down onto her pants. She let out a small laugh, which crackled through the fluid in her throat. "Ladon would happily watch you die here than do anything to save you."

She drew in a deep breath through her mouth. "So long as you die with me."

One of Kolya's men stepped in from outside and whispered in his ear. Once he finished speaking Kolya stood up chuckling. "I can see why Colonel Sheppard chose you. I admire your spirit, but unfortunately it's time for you to die." Then Kolya jerked his head to the guards. "Leave us."

Alice swallowed as she watched them leave. Her hands twisting painfully against her restraints. Something was about to happen. Her heart rate increased as she watched Kolya pick up her gun from the table. Her cheek throbbed and her she pressed her lips together tightly to stop them from shaking.

"Despite what you may think, I take no pleasure in cruelty." He said, as he examined the gun. "Being military yourself I'm sure you understand, that some situations demand it." Kolya turned to face her, Alice's body started involuntarily shaking. She wasn't sure if it was shock, or fear or maybe both. He picked up the radio tapping the control to activate it. "Your time is up Colonel. Doctor Riley was just one in a long line wasn't she Sheppard?" Kolya's eyes drifted over to Alice. "Just another one that...slipped through your fingers." He raised the gun. Tears pricked in Alice's eyes, but she refused to let them fall. Biting down on her tongue, she stiffened every muscle in her body. Barely daring to breathe as she glared defiantly at Kolya. But right when she expected him to pull the trigger he dropped the gun. And Kolya left the room.

Alice let out the breath she'd been holding, and let out a strangled sob. Her face throbbed as she felt a pair of hands on shoulders, holding her back as another untied her hands. "Get up." One of Kolya's men ordered.

Alice obeyed, lifting her head to see she was being led back into the main square, no villagers were out now, but she could see them hiding in amongst the houses. The Genii soldier kicked the back of her knees forcing her down into the dirt. Then the rest of her team were led out of the shadows. "Alice!" Carson yelled.

"I'm fine. Don't worry about me." Alice wheezed, her voice contorted by the swelling of her nose.

Kolya paced back and forth, he just tapped the radio when Alice heard John. "Kolya!" John yelled, his voice echoing around the square.

Alice felt her stomach turn cold. "What are you doing?!" She screamed as he casually strolled into view.

Kolya turned to see John, smirking he holstered his pistol as John walked closer. "I should have killed you when we first met, Colonel. It would have saved me a lot of trouble."

"The feeling's mutual."

"Kolya!" Alice yelled.

Kolya didn't even spare her a glance. His eyes fixed on John. "Goodbye, Sheppard."

All around John, Kolya's soldiers opened fire on him. But the bullets bounced harmlessly off a green glow which surrounds him. John smiled smugly as the soldiers continue to fire until their guns clicked empty. "Well, now that you've got that out of your system ..." Alice stared with her mouth slightly agape, as he unzipped his vest to reveal the shield device. He laughed, but the green shimmer flickered. "Oh, crap!" With a groan the device shut off and dropped to the floor.

"Reload!" Kolya yelled.

"Don't bother."

Kolya and his soldiers turned in surprise as Lucius waltzed into view, followed by a group of the townspeople. "You should have left town when you had the chance." Kolya sneered.

Lucius just smiled as, all around the square, the townspeople burst out of their houses carrying various implements like shovels and pitchforks, together with some rifles. They surrounded the soldiers, forcing them to lower their weapons. Lucius smiled at Kolya. "I'm sure you're thinking the same thing right about now." Alice couldn't believe what she was seeing, but John's voice made her look back towards Kolya.

"If I gave you the opportunity to surrender, I don't suppose you'd take it?" John stepped forward tilting his head. Kolya smiled, then chuckled ironically. "I didn't think so."

Alice watched quietly as John and Kolya faced up to each other. Kolya went for his gun. But John was quicker and fired a single shot. Kolya stumbled, dropping his chin to see blood pooling over his heart. With a grunt, he dropped to the ground. John stared at him for a heartbeat longer, then raised his chin to address the soldiers. "Put down your weapons."

Alice stared at Kolya's body, it had dropped only a meter from where she saw. She could see the blood starting to soak into the ground and the color fade from his skin. And she felt nothing, but a cold calm. Like he'd said, some situations called for a cruel nature.

The soldiers complied, placing their guns on the ground. Lucius clapped his hands in delight and grinned.

Ronon rushed over to Alice, along with Carson, freeing her from the ties and examining her head. "I'm fine Carson, it's worse than it looks." She attempted to smile, but it just caused her to flinch in pain.

Though it must have looked pretty bad, as his lips were pulled into a tight line. "I'll be the one to decide that." He muttered, pulling her head to the side to look over her cheek. He touched it gently, but even the slightest touch caused her to wince and flinch away. "It looks like you might have cracked your cheek bone and you've got a broken nose. Nothing we can't fix though."

Alice had to look away from him, distracting herself as he started cleaning and bandaging her face. John was standing over Kolya's dead body, a glazed look on his face. Even though they both knew he needed to die, it wouldn't stop John from feeling the guilt that came with taking a life.

He kicked the gun away from Kolya's hand and then turned his back on the body. His eyes locked with Alice's. "How's she doing doc?" He asked.

"I'm fine." She snapped, a sudden rage built under her skin.

Carson sighed. "You most certainly are not. I need to get you back to Atlantis and under a scanner."

John pursed his lips and nodded curtly. He started to walk away, but she knocked Carson's hand away and stood up to follow him, ignoring his complaints. "Why did you come back?! You knew he wanted you dead. He wasn't going to do anything to us."

John's eyes blazed. "He was going to kill you!"

"No he wasn't. He wanted the codes I had to the Genii homeworld." Though she wasn't going to tell him what Kolya had said to her. "You put yourself at risk for no goddamn reason."

"Well I'm sorry I had to come in and save your ass." John sneered.

"It wouldn't have needed saving if you had just listened to me in the first place." Her nose and cheek throbbed as she shouted, but she barely noticed it as adrenaline coursed through her. "But your ego almost got this entire village burnt to the ground. If you don't trust me-!"

"That's enough." John roared back. "Ronon. Beckett, get her back to Atlantis now!"

Alice stepped forward, determined to yell more. But Ronon blocked her path, turning her back towards Carson. "Enough." He whispered lowly to her.

Alice huffed, but noticed all around her had gone quiet. Everyone had stopped to stare at her and John. Keeping her head up she allowed Ronon and Carson to lead her out of the village and back towards the gate.

Carson gently placed a new swab of gauze to her face. She hadn't noticed but her shouting had managed to reopen the wound on her cheek. "I think you might have taken it too far lass." Carson said gently.

Alice knew he was right, but her heart still pounded in her chest. The words had just spilled out of her, but the more she thought about it the more she realised she was right, he didn't trust her. Not anymore. That hurt more than anything Kolya had done to her.

Alice sat nervously in front of Elizabeth. She'd been called in front of their leader, and Alice was sure it had something to do with the recent public shouting matches John and her had been having. Gingerly she touched the gauze that covered the side of her face. Her nose was also covered in a bridge, packed with gauze to ensure it kept it's position. Luckily, he hadn't had to re-break it to get it back into its original position. It made it hard to eat, sleep and speak. Not to mention she was under strict no shouting orders from Carson, or she risked tearing open her stitches.

Elizabeth walked around in front of her desk, taking a seat on the sofa chair opposite Alice. She cleared her throat awkwardly. "I've read the mission report, and had a few other reports about heated arguments between Colonel Sheppard and yourself, not to mention the one in the briefing room the other day." Elizabeth paused, clasping her hands together in her lap.

Alice felt like she was back in school waiting to find out whether she was about to be expelled. "Elizabeth…"

Elizabeth shook her head, making the words dry up in Alice's throat. "I can't have two of my senior officers at each others throats. You once told me your relationship wouldn't impact your responsibilities to this missions, but…" she took in a deep breath. "we're under more scrutiny than ever. The IOA are breathing down my neck, looking for any reason to take this chair away from me. I can't have your personal conflicts putting your team and everyone else at risk." Alice couldn't bear to look up and see the disappointment in her leaders eyes. "Until you and Sheppard can resolve your conflict, I'm removing you from his team effective immediately."

Alice couldn't say she was surprised. If John really didn't trust her then he'd probably recommended to remove her. It stung thinking how sour their relationship had turned. She nodded solemnly at Elizabeth, showing she understood.

Elizabeth stood up. "Until I can trust you two can be in the same room without being at each other's throats…"

Alice felt her eyes burning with tears. "Yes Ma'am." She managed to whisper.

Elizabeth frowned and walk around to her desk. It was clear that was the end of the conversation.

A/N **#SorrynotSorry! i did warn you it's going to get a lot worse before it gets better...**


	37. Chapter 37

**A/N I'm so sorry this has taken so long to update, but hope you know how crazy everything has been recently and a lot of other things had to take priority.**

 **Hope you are all staying safe and well and that two chapter update help you in some small way!**

 **Sending love x**

The sun streamed through the stained glass windows of the Infirmary. Alice was sat at one of the empty medical stations at the back of the infirmary.

She'd been suspended for over a week now, and it had been hell. Although, her anger had slowly ebbed away, she'd not seen or spoken to John since he'd ordered her to leave Lucius' village. Part of her knew she couldn't avoid him forever and the sooner they had it out the better it would be. But stubbornness and fear kept her away. She'd never had feelings this strong about anyone, good or bad, and their next conversation would change her entire reality. Again. Even though it wasn't easy at least the last time it had been her choice, she'd decided to stay, to give into her insecurity. Whereas now, it was up to him. He could decide he wanted as little to do with her as possible – and she wasn't eager to hear that. No matter how screwed up they were right now, she just wasn't ready to hear there was no hope left.

That was part of the reason she was hiding out in the Infirmary, it was somewhere no one would go looking for her.

A voice broke through the silence around her. "Hi there, can I help you?" Alice looked up, she didn't recognise the voice or the woman walking up to her. "Do you need a doctor?" The woman asked tilting her head as she looked over Alice.

Alice touch her nose gingerly, knowing that was most likely what the woman was looking at. Although the majority of the bandaging had been removed she still had a few steri-strips and bruising covering her face. "Sorry, I'm Alice Riley. Carson said no one was using this station and I could work here." She held her hand out to the woman.

"Oh no worries." The woman who had honey colored hair smiled and took Alice's hand. "I'm Doctor Keller, but you can call me Jennifer. What happened?" She drew a circle in the air around her own cheek.

"It's nice to meet you. Um... just an accident off-world. It's nothing. Did you just get here?" Alice let her hand go and smiled back.

Jennifer let out a breath. "Yeah, two days. It's insane isn't it? But I mean who could have said no to all this."

Alice laughed, she liked Jennifer already. "It's pretty incredible, I've been here three years and it still hasn't lost the awe factor."

Jennifer's eyes widened. "So you were part of the original group?"

"Yeah. I was an Air Force officer back then, I only made the switch over to the civilian science team this year." Alice rubbed the back of her neck.

Jennifer seemed super interested. "Woah. That's incredible." She looked around at the infirmary. "So why are you hiding out here?"

Alice looked back at her laptop. "Oh...well when Doctor's McKay and Zalenka are off-world that leaves me in charge of the R&D department." She held up her hand. "Only because they have less experience with um...weirdness and off-world protocol."

Jennifer nodded. "That still doesn't explain why you're here?"

Alice scrunched up her face. "Well...if i'm honest it's to escape anyone who wants to bug me with questions." Though this wasn't exactly the whole truth, as acting head, this meant everyone and anyone was constantly coming to her with problems. Half of them were basic questions about the City's systems that she had no problem with, but the rest varied from personal disputes, to research specific questions she had no idea where to start. In order to get a few moments of peace, she'd decided to find a quiet spot to get her head down. Her quarters were a no go as that was the first place people looked when they wanted her, so the infirmary felt like the next best place. Scientifically they were linked to everything Alice needed and none of the staff typically disturbed her. Other than Carson that is, but he was a welcome distraction. Though, the fact John avoided the infirmary like a plague unless absolutely necessary was also a bonus.

"I get that. Just need some headspace." Jennifer pulled up the stool across from Alice. "It's totally cool if you don't have time, but I was wondering if I could as you a few questions about the city?"

Alice smiled. "Sure."

Jennifer and her ended up talking for over an hour, until one of the nurses came over requesting Jennifer's help with an off-world team check up. Alice lifted her wrist to check the time, it was early evening. John's team would be back anytime now. She just started packing up when Evan's voice drifted in from the open doorway. "Here is the infirmary. Doctor Keller is our Chief Medical Officer, and will be doing your mandated check up later today. Then- oh Aly! Perfect timing."

Slipping her laptop under her arm she brushed a stay piece of hair back behind her hair. "Hey Ev."

A pretty blonde woman stood behind him, she was wearing a Daedalus officers' uniform. It was obvious this was her first trip out here, as unlike the other airmen she still held herself tense and ready to salute or drop to the floor in an instant. Evan gestured to the woman. "This is Captain Stephanie Jordan, she's one of the Daedalus' new officers. Caldwell asked for her to have the full orientation but there's a security issue I've got to deal with. Could you finish up for me?" His eyes pleaded.

Alice rolled her eyes. "Sure thing." She held out her hand to the Captain. "I'm Doctor Alice Riley. It's nice to meet you."

The Captain extended her own hand and shook Alice's. She was extremely attractive, her soft brown eyes were a contrast to the brightness of her hair. She had a mischievous smirk on her face and even though there wasn't a fleck of make up on her face she was striking. Alice suddenly felt very plain next to her, with her hair tossed up into a messy bun and bruised face. "Aly was Air Force until she decided the civilian pay check was double." Evan winked, then started backing out of the room. "I owe you one Als, I'll see you later."

Alice watched him go with an affectionate smile, then directed her attention back to Captain Jordan. "Well, why don't you tell me what you've seen so far and we'll go from there."

Jordan clasped her hands behind her back. "Just the control room and the infirmary ma'am."

Alice scrunched up her face. "Ugh please don't. Just Alice is fine." Her nose ached from the movement. "Okay, well I need to drop this at my lab." She motioned to the laptop under her arm. "So we'll start there and then head to the mess hall and training areas."

Alice led the way out. "You were Air Force ma'am? I mean Alice?" Jordan spoke with a soft tone, but underneath Alice could hear the toughness that came with being a woman in the military.

"Yep, I was a Captain." Alice smiled. "Is this your first time off-world? Or were you part of the SGC before hand?" Happy to move the subject off her career change.

Jordan's eyes studied her as they walked, but she seemed happy to oblige with the change of topic. "First time. I was in Afghanistan until a week ago, it was my second tour. Then I got my orders to report back to Colorado for reassignment. I can't even begin to describe what it felt like to hear about the Stargate and then be beamed up onto the Daedalus on course for a new galaxy." The awe in her voice was clear.

They were almost at Alice's lab. "Everyone here knows exactly what you mean. It's a lot to take in." She waved her hand over the door panel. "Here is the main research lab for R&D. The department is led by Doctor Rodney McKay, he's offworld at the moment but I'm sure you'll meet him at some point." She tried not to wince as she thought of all the uncomfortable introductions she'd made to Rodney over the years. But Jordan looked like she could hold her own. Moving past the desks, Alice dropped her laptop. "On with the tour."

During the orientation, Alice learned that Jordan was a demolitions expert and had spent most of her time in Afghanistan clearing IEDs from local settlements and school. And she was incredibly alert and intelligent. A small pang of envy prickled under Alice's skin. Not only was she attractive, smart and deadly, but she seemed funny and selfless.

That didn't mean Alice wasn't looking forward to working with her. There was a distinct lack of female officers on the base since the expedition had returned, and it would be nice to make some new connections. Even if Jordan would only be here ever few weeks.

They'd made it through the mess hall, gyms and rec rooms. Next, Alice was heading for the armoury. "You'll have to keep an eye on the Lieutenants. Lloyd especially, he can be a real handful." She said.

Jordan smiled. "I'll remember that name. What about the Commander? I've heard he's a real hard ass Colonel."

Alice stopped raising an eyebrow. "Really? Who told you that?"

"Major Lorne."

"Of course he did…" Alice sighed. "The Colonel-" and as if on cue, John stepped out of the armoury in front of them. Alice felt like slapping herself in the face. She knew John would have been coming back around now, she should have left the armoury till very last.

It was too late to turn around now, and she didn't really want to explain why she'd just run off from the commander of Atlantis to Jordan. It was too embarrassing. John looked up and stopped dead, his face paled slightly as he saw them.

Maybe it would have been less awkward if Alice had just run away. She was just about to call out to introduce John, but Alice wasn't expecting Jordan to say his name.

"John?" Jordan's soft voice drifted almost through Alice's brain.

John's mouth twisted into an awkward shy smile, and he slowly stepped over to them. His eyes glancing between Alice and Jordan. "Steph. It's…uh…good to see you."

The tension in the air was so thick, it made it harder to breathe. Alice cleared her throat. "You two know each other?"

John blinked, his lips pursing. "Steph- I mean the Captain and I were both stationed in Kabul." There seemed to be more to the story, but she knew John wasn't about to say.

Jordan crossed her arms and let out a short laugh. "I see you finally got your promotion."

"You could say that." John said.

Alice cleared her throat. "Colonel Sheppard is our military commander."

Jordan's posture instantly stiffened. "Sir." She seemed to say reactively.

John waved his hand at the formality. "We're quite casual here. Um…Riles. Do you mind-"

Alice swallowed. "I'll let you two catch up." She pivoted on her heel, leaving the Captain alone in the corridor with John. A bad feeling settled in her stomach.

Alice headed straight back to her room. Once the door closed she dropped down onto her bed. She wondered what the history between John and 'Steph' was, it could have been that John's tension was due to being around her. But it seemed more than that.

Kicking off her boots she grabbed her pillow pulled it over her eyes. She fell into an uneasy sleep.

—

When Alice opened her eyes in the morning she felt like she hadn't slept at all. Dragging herself out of bed she headed for the bathroom, making herself some what presentable and pulling her hair up into a high ponytail.

There was little she could do for her face. Brown and blue bruises still marred her skin and her nose still felt swollen under the steri-strips. The stitches had already been taken out, and Alice was thankful they hadn't left much of a scar. But she still looked like a mess. No wonder Jennifer thought she'd needed a Doctor yesterday.

Leaving her room she headed for the lab, she may have been able to avoid Rodney yesterday, but she had a responsibility to report into him today.

She could hear yelling up ahead as she approached the lab. Even from where she was she could tell one of the voices was Rodney. "What are you talking about - you can't do it. How difficult can it be?!"

Alice picked up her pace, wrapping her knuckles on the door to alert the two scientists to her presence. Rodney spun around to reveal Radek sat on a stool in front of his laptop. He was holding his head in his hands like he was ready to give up and walk away. "What's going on?" She raised an eyebrow as she strode into the lab.

"Aly! There you are. Where were you yesterday?" Rodney rambled.

"Working." She raised an eyebrow. Rodney never normally took his management role so seriously. "What's difficult?" She gestured to Radek, trying to draw Rodney's attention away from her.

Radek sighed. "We ran our standard power check and it showed a number of redundant systems are draining power from the ZPM."

"And _bird brain_ over here can't break through the Ancients protocols to shut them down remotely." Rodney snapped.

"Geez Rodney, calm down." Alice watched as Radek pinched the bridge of his nose. She wondered how long this had been going on before she got here. She put her hands on her hips.

"This is basic Ancient 101. My four-year old niece would be able to do it."

Alice smiled smugly as a plan formed in her head. "Really? That basic."

"I'll show you. In fact, I'll bet you a month's pay that I can do it before lunch." Rodney crossed his hands smugly over his chest.

Alice gave Radek a sly smile. "Deal." They both said at the same time.

Rodney chuckled and rubbed his hands together. "Ha! This will be the easiest money I've ever made. Move over." He flicked his wrists gesturing for Radek to move away from the laptop.

Radek stood up eagerly, Alice moved to stand behind Rodney peering over his shoulder. Rodney cracked his knuckles and started analysing the screen. "This may take a while." Radek whispered.

Alice took a last look over his shoulder. "Right." She whispered. "Have you eaten yet?"

"No. How about you?"

Alice smiled. "Nope." Happily Radek and her headed out the door. "We'll grab you a muffin Rodney!" But he just mumbled and gestured for them to go away.

By the time they'd gotten back to the lab, Rodney looked like he was ready to throw the laptop across the room. He was pulling on his hair and grumbling to himself. Alice placed a chocolate muffin by his desk, then her and Radek returned to their normal stations.

The back log of requests was enough to keep Alice's mind busy and off John and her personal disasters. Whether it was translating sections of technical ancient logs or trying to categorise and log some new piece of tech, the hours flew past.

Before she knew it her watched beeped, indicating Rodney's time was up.

She had to cover her mouth with her hand when she looked up to see Rodney was almost turning purple with rage. Alice walked over and leaned on the desk beside him. She held up her wrist. "Andddddd that's lunch."

Rodney's head snapped up with wide eyes. "What?! No, I just need-"

Alice held up a finger. "Nope, a bets a bet. Now have you solved it or not."

Rodney looked between her and the screen. "No. But I-"

"No buts. Now, the systems aren't too far. Let's grab our gear and head out to switch them off manually. We can't afford for them to drain our only ZPM, right?" She asked raising an eyebrow.

"No." He sighed in resignation. "Fine."

"Great." She clapped her hand on his back. "Grab your kit then. I'll let Evan know."

Ever since the incident a couple of years ago, it was policy that security teams be informed of anyone heading down into the outer edges of the city that hadn't been cleared. Usually someone tagged along to act as a bodyguard, or at least that was what the idea was, really it was to make sure the scientists didn't go turning on anything they weren't supposed – though Alice, Radek and Rodney were exempt from that part of the policy.

Once they'd been cleared by security, they'd assembled a team of scientists and engineers. Since they didn't venture down into these sections often, they'd decided to bring along members of the structural team to check on the integrity of this section. As it was only recently, these sections were drained of water.

Evan had sent down Lloyd to accompany them, as well as Jordan.

Alice took the lead, her datapad in one hand and a torch in the other. It felt good to be active again, rather than just sitting behind a desk.

They took it slowly once they stepped into the darkened tunnels. Most of the power still hadn't be rerouted to these systems, a precaution to avoid an overload. As no one knew what kind of state the power conduits would be in after being under water so long.

Her boots stuck to the damp floor, as she walked. A light dripping could be heard echoing around the empty space, Alice just hoped it wasn't indicative of a seal leak from another floor. The power was intermittent at best in these sections, so most if not all the lights and doors required manual overrides.

Behind her she could hear Radek and Rodney bickering like an old married couple.

Captain Jordan walked beside her, her torch swinging back and forth along the floor and wall. "Are they always like this?" She asked Alice shining her torch back towards Radek and Rodney.

Alice felt like she was being embarrassed in-front of the new kid. Sighing she answered honestly. "Always." Alice looked down at her datapad, she had a complete map up of the flooded area.

"So Riles? Right?" Jordan asked her as they walked.

Alice looked up from her map. "Sorry?"

Lloyd who was walking only a few steps behind them, let out a small chuckle "Only the Colonel calls her that." His words dripping with innuendo.

Jordan's eyes seemed to narrow slightly in thought as she glanced back between Lloyd and Alice. "Alice then, I wanted-"

But before Jordan could finish, Alice felt her datapad vibrate in her hand. Shining her torch at an open door to her left, she saw a light bluish glow lighting up the room. "Rodney!" She yelled over her shoulder. "This is it."

"Thank God."

"Let us clear it first." Lloyd was using his best authoritative voice. It was only then, that Alice realised how serious and non-Lloyd like he'd been on the trek down here. Then she saw his eyes flick over to Jordan and it all made sense.

"Okay, but make it quick." She said, before Rodney could open his mouth. "Rayez and Warren. You guys can start your structural analysis from here." Even though Rodney was head of the department, if the project didn't involve him or really excite him, he couldn't care less about it. Leaving Radek and her to manage the teams.

Alice tried hard not to roll her eyes as Rodney and Radek continued their bickering. Lloyd stepped back through the doorway and gave them the all clear. Alice went first, followed by Jordan and then Radek and Rodney.

It looked like there were two main control interfaces. One was on top of a pedestal and the other closer to the door off to the side. Alice headed for the one close to her, Jordan followed.

"You ... OK, you know what? Look around, see if you can figure out how you can turn this place off, whatever it is." Rodney stepped up onto the low podium.

"Are you sure you should be going up there?" Radek's voice sounded nervous.

Alice looked up to see Rodney looking back at him with clear irritation. "How else am I gonna find out what this room does, huh?" He started attaching his computer tablet to the panel. "God forbid there should be anything in the Ancient database."

"Oh, there probably is. We just don't have the time to ..." Alice started saying, as she squinted at the machine, hovering her hand over it trying to initialise the machine.

Suddenly, the blue glow intensified and the screens in the lab all switched on. Alice wasn't sure if it was her or Rodney who had activated it. "Ah, here we go." Rodney said.

A screen full of Ancient writing appeared in front of her. "Can you read this?" Jordan asked, leaning into the screen and waving a hand across the projection.

Alice had already started skimming the text looking for keywords that would tell her anything about the purpose of the lab. "Yeah…" she mumbled. "The longer you spend here it just becomes second nature."

"OK, there should be a main power switch ..." Radek stepped closer to Rodney. Alice could just make out their blurry figures behind the glowing interface.

"Yes, I _know_ that. What do you think I'm doing?" Rodney replied back tetchily.

"You guys are such an old married couple." Alice complained under her breath, scrolling through the text.

"I don't know how you get anything done." Jordan commented.

"Alright - double or nothing." Radek said excitedly.

"Oh, you're on. Alright." He paused.

Alice paused her scrolling. Two words in the text made her stop - experiment and manipulation. "Rodney, just wait a second."

"It's gotta be around here somewhere." He muttered.

Alice moved her head around the screen. "Rodney-" but the consoles all came to life. Alice watched in shock as a beam of light shot down from the ceiling, wrapping itself around Rodney. It swirled around him for a couple of seconds, then shut off.

Panels everywhere started overloading. Alice raised her arms, as sparks flew at her. The room plunged into darkness, leaving Alice fumbling for her torch. "Rodney!" She couldn't see him stood at the panel anymore. Switching on her torch, she stepped around her console. Moving past Jordan, to see Rodney's body heaped on the floor. "Rodney!" She quickly rushed towards him.

Rodney sat up as she reached him turning around to face her, his eyes wide in horror. "I'm not sure ... but I think I just lost - big time."

Alice tapped her radio. "This is team sierra, requesting immediate medical assistance."

—-

Alice stood next to John and Elizabeth, as Carson looked over his shoulder at Rodney. Jordan and Lloyd were lingering close to Rodney's side, they had been the ones to carry him up here.

Her whole body tense, as Carson gave them an overview of Rodney's condition. "As far as I can tell, he's fine." But for some reason this didn't let her to relax. That might have more to do with the fact John was standing right beside her. Or the small glances she saw passing between him and Jordan.

Though they obviously weren't far enough away from Rodney. "I was hit by a mysterious energy pulse. How can that possibly be fine?" He called out to them exasperatedly.

Carson sighed and they walked over to Rodney's bedside. "I've run every test I can: blood work, M. , X-rays, the lot. I found no anomalies in any of the results." Carson explained.

Rodney held his finger up. "One more time: mysterious energy pulse from a device created by the Ancients. I mean, who knows what kind of long-term effects I could be in for? I mean, there's gross mutation, giantism, invisibility ..."

John shrugged. "That would be cool. _I_ turned into a bug." Alice shivered, remembering the iratus virus incident.

"A bug?" Jordan asked.

But John just shook his head, obviously not keen to relive the story.

"Alright. Like I said, as far as I can tell, he's as healthy as a horse." Carson sighed. "I'm clearing you for active duty."

"Are you insane?!" Rodney's eyes were wide. He turned to Elizabeth and John. "Look, I need to be put under guard. Who knows what I could become?"

John rolled his eyes. Alice frowned and Elizabeth looked at Carson. "What are the chances it could make him more pleasant?"

"Oh, thank you!" Rodney sneered sarcastically.

"I'll keep an eye on him." John offered. "Captain, we'll finish your de-brief later. I know Caldwell wants all hands back on board to run some drills this afternoon."

"Yes sir." Jordan straightened.

"I'll see what I can pull from the consoles' drives." Alice dipped her head respectfully and back out of the room. Letting out a breath, that might have been one of the few times her and John had not shouted at each other. Though he barely cast a look at her.

Alice went straight to the lab, pulling out a large container and throwing in anything she thought she might need. Including a naquadah generator. Hopefully whatever Rodney had done hadn't overloaded the crystals. "You need any help?" Evan's voice was followed by the heavy step of his boots approaching her.

"Yeah, could you grab that scanner?" She pointed vaguely to the other side of the room.

Evan came back a few seconds later and placed the device in the box. "Thanks again for covering me yesterday." He said, as he grabbed a trolley and lifted the box onto it.

"No problem. Happy to help. Jordan seems really nice." Alice replied, keeping her eyes down.

"She is." Evan said in a measured tone. "Come on I'll help you drop this down to the lab, then I'm heading off-world."

"Anywhere interesting." She tried not to let any bitterness tarnish her tone, but it was difficult.

"Just recon, nothing you'd be want to do." Evan said, a smile in his voice.

Along with Radek, Alice had set up emergency lighting and power systems to try reactivate the control interface. Once they were set up, Alice was irritated to see Rodney heading towards them with John in tow.

Moving to the otherside of the room to him, Alice buried her head in her job. Trying to ignore his presence. However, It didn't take long before Rodney and Radek resumed their bickering from earlier. "What are you saying?"

"That you were showing off." Radek sighed, Alice assumed he regretted getting onto this topic. "If Captain Jordan weren't around, I doubt you would have been as reckless as you were."

"Are you insane?" Rodney's voice went high pitched, telling Alice he was obviously lying. Though Alice didn't realise he'd even noticed the Captain.

"Steph's great." John pipped up, seemingly suddenly interested in the conversation.

"Oh, you know her?" Radek replied.

"Ah, well. We might of uh-"

"Do you mind? We're trying to work here." Rodney interrupted. Alice felt her blood run cold.

"For the record, I was gonna say worked together." John said, but his tone was full of suggestion.

"Yeah, sure you were." Rodney snapped. "What've you got Aly?"

Alice couldn't bear to look up, whatever he was doing it was aimed at her and she couldn't let it bother her. She cleared her throat, not wanting to sound weak. "Nothing. Whatever you did fried all the power conduits leading into the room."

Rodney stood up looking incredulous. "Whatever _I_ did?! Look, up until very recently this lab was entirely under water, quite possibly for over ten thousand years. How is that _my_ fault?"

"Well, _that_ part of it isn't." Radek said.

Rodney threw his datapad down onto the console, lifting his hands in the air. "OK, that's it. I'm going for lunch." And headed out the door, to Alice's relief taking John with him.

Once John had walked out of view, Alice let out a sigh and felt every muscle in her body relax. She hadn't even realised how tense she had been. "You okay?" Radek stepped closer to her.

"Yeah. Fine." She lied. Alice wiped her face, trying to draw her mind back to the small damp room and the problem in front of them. "Okay, why don't we try connecting up a naquadah generator, see if we can bypass the main power relays."

Radek hesitated, then nodded. "Alright, I'll grab a generator." He walked out the room to get the generator from the trolley they'd left outside.

Alice knew he'd be gone for at least a couple of minutes, she took in a deep breath. Trying to regain her composure.

Radek and Alice worked side by side quietly trying to jerry-rig a connection for the naquadah generator.

"Colonel Sheppard. Please have your team report to the Control Room immediately. Colonel Sheppard." Alice froze, Chuck's voice sounded through their ear pieces.

Normally, Alice would have dropped everything and run straight to the control room. _But you're not on the team anymore_ , she thought to herself. Forcing her feet to stay still and her eyes to focus on the cords leading to the generator. If it was something important Alice knew they'd be contacted. "Alice, Doctor Zalenka please respond." Elizabeth's voice sounded in her ear.

"We're here, go ahead." Her fingers moved like lightning to answer her radio, dropping the cords keeping the separated.

"Colonel Sheppard's team are moving out with a team of Marines to assist Major Lorne's team."

"Evan?! Is everything okay?"

"They've encountered some Wraith resistance. We'll keep you updated."

Alice dropped her head. She should be going on this mission. It was infuriating to have to sit on the sidelines and just wait. "Is it always this hard to just wait?" She glanced over at Radek.

He gave her a sympathetic look. "Shall we try to power up?"

Alice swallowed, she knew Radek was trying to help keep her mind distracted. "Sure. Give me a second."

After a few attempts they managed to connect part of the console to their backup generator. Luckily it was the console that housed the Ancient scientists research notes.

Alice felt like she was knee deep in ancient script. "Radek..." she started warily. "We need to get Elizabeth down here now." She pointed to a particular section of text. Radek's Ancient wasn't the best, but even he'd be able to pick up the words that worried her.

"Doctor Weir, could you come down to the lab please?"

—

It didn't take Elizabeth long to arrive in their lab. "Doctor Weir. Any word?" Radek's question informed Alice of her arrival.

"Not yet." She said attempting to mask the worry. "It _has_ only been an hour. You wanted to see me?" She glanced between the two of them.

"Yes. We managed to get power to part of the console to access the lab's research logs." Radek started.

"Well, that's good news." Elizabeth said.

"We're not so sure..." Alice stepped aside. "Take a look for yourself."

Elizabeth gave her a guarded look before stepping onto the podium and starting to read. "It seems much of this refers to different elements of human physiology. It mentions the mutation of base genetic coding."

Alice nodded beside her. "Although Carson said there was no physical evidence of any side effects. This device was..."

"... meant to manipulate human D.N.A." Elizabeth finished for her.

Alice's mouth pulled into a tight line. Before Elizabeth could say anything a channel opened on their radios. "Doctor Weir to the Jumper Bay. The rescue team has returned."

Elizabeth nodded to the both of them. "Let's go."

Running, the trio of them headed for the nearest transporter, taking it straight to the Jumper bay.

The door opened and they ran up the final flight of stairs to see the Jumper's rear hatch lowering.

"What else could it be?!" Alice heard Rodney shouting before she saw him.

"You're losing your mind!" John shouted back at him.

The door finally opened, and John stormed out with Rodney beside him. "I'm telling you, it's a bit of a coincidence!" Rodney was turning sightly red from yelling.

"Well, then, prove it!" John shouted back.

Alice glanced back and forth between the two, but the sight of Evan walking out of the Jumper took her focus. "Evan." She yelled, running forward to him. She didn't miss the small glare she got as she moved past John. "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine Aly." Evan chuckled at her.

Alice gave him a quick once over. There didn't seem to be any sign of an injury or blood. She glanced at the rest of his team, none of them looked like they had a scratch.

"How bad is it and who's been hurt?" Carson barrelled in behind them dragging a medical team with gurneys.

"No-one, Doc. We're all fine ... thanks to McKay." He gestured at Rodney while raising his eyebrows at Alice in obvious sarcasm and disbelief.

Alice did a double take. "Rodney?!"

"So he says." John added just as sarcastically.

Everyone turned to look at him. "Rodney?" Elizabeth pressed.

"Well, to be honest, I'm not entirely sure. I wasn't even sure it was me at first, but the correlation's impossible to ignore. I saw Lorne's team pinned down, the bad guys closing in - I just thought, you know, wouldn't it be great if all their weapons jammed at the same time?" As he explained his voice grew less certain.

John was biting his lip, as if trying not to laugh. Alice was staring at Rodney, she didn't know what to believe. Her mind running a million possibilities given what they'd just read about the machine.

"Next thing I know, they're all running away, so ..." he finished.

"So you think because you _wanted_ it to happen, it just did." Elizabeth asked cynically.

Rodney sighed. "It was a little more than that." Elizabeth nodded sarcastically. "OK. You know what? Watch this. I'll, uh ..." He turned to face Carson and pointed at him. A series of gasps emanated from the group as Carson was raised off the ground.

"Rodney!" Carson yelled in terror, looking down at the ground below him.

"Rodney?" Elizabeth said warily.

"Believe me, I find this as disturbing as you do." Rodney mumbled.

"Like bloody hell you do!" Carson shouted, his body rigid with fear.

"Put him down." Elizabeth said softly.

Slowly Rodney lowered his hand and Carson floated gently down to the floor. He sighed in relief as his feet touched the ground. "Oh, God!"

Alice and Radek exchanged a panic glance. Carson approached Rodney warily with John and Elizabeth. "We'll see you in the lab." Alice grabbed Radek's arm and ran for the transporter.

—-

Alice knelt down to plug in her datapad into the console. John and Elizabeth were working across the lab on stations Radek had set up to continue reading the researchers logs. Alice, on the other hand, was trying to reconnect power to the main machine. She could hear them talking softly between them, though if it was anything related to Rodney they would call both her and Radek.

"Yes, you can be next." Elizabeth said, her voice suddenly raised and exasperated.

Alice looked up to see John smiling eagerly. "Thank you!"

She rolled her eyes, of course he wanted to be the next in line to get his DNA manipulated. If they'd known what the device had done beforehand he'd probably had twisted their arms to test it on him.

Elizabeth shook her head in disappointment and headed for the door. "Call me if you find anything else."

A synonymous grunt of agreement sounded around the room. Alice rose from below the console and started remapping the conduits, tuning out everything else happening around her.

That was until John's low voice next to her ear almost made her jump out of her skin. "How's your bruises feeling?"

Alice reactively moved to touch her still healing nose and cheek. "Fine, thanks. Still a bit sore."

"That's good, I'm glad to hear it." John put his hands in his pockets, then took them out again. "About earlier." Alice swallowed, her heart beating fast. She hoped John hadn't noticed her reaction to his close presence. "I just wanted to say, Steph- Jordan and I were friends when we were stationed in Kabul. Maybe it was a bit more then that, but it was a long time ago. I didn't mean to make you uncomfortable."

Alice stopped working, her mind raced as to why John would feel the need to explain that to her. "Oh okay, she..she seems very capable." She winced at her attempt to sound casual. "Is that all?"

"I just…um…Yeah." He muttered.

"Would you mind checking the emergency breakers then, I don't want to short this system out again." She let her hair swing down to cover her face, hoping to cover her embarrassment.

"Of course."

She could just see the corner of his smile through the small gaps in her hair. He turned his back to her and started walking over to where the breakers were, her eyes stayed trained on his back as he moved.

—

"Alice, could you report to the Chair room. Rodney is attempting...something."

Alice packed up her gear and walked to the chair room, unsure exactly what Elizabeth meant. When she got there Rodney was just about to get in the chair.

"Hey Aly, don't worry I'm just going to be running a few programs to improve our power distribution efficiency." Rodney rattled off before Alice had a chance to open her mouth. "Yes, i know what I'm doing and it's perfectly safe." He sat up suddenly, staring side eyed at her. "You think I'm a -"

"Rodney!" She snapped, slightly bewildered. Rodney had seemingly answered all the thoughts in her head.

"Um...yes. I can read minds. Elizabeth wants you to monitor what i'm doing." He scoffed. "Not that you could keep up. Yes, yes. I know you could pound my ass, now let's get started."

Her mouth slightly agape she looked over at Ronon, who just shrugged.

Rodney lent back in the chair and the room powered up. Alice shook herself out of her stupor and moved to look at the manual interface for the chair. As much as she hated to admit, she was struggling to follow everything Rodney was doing.

Eventually Alice called down a few other scientists, hoping they could help her decipher what Rodney was doing.

"What the hell is he doing?" Alice looked away from the screen to see Radek walking in.

"Don't ask me." Ronon muttered from his spot on the floor.

"Actually, I wasn't." Radek muttered, glancing over at Alice.

Alice just let out a breath. "Honestly, i have no clue."

Radek pinched the bridge of his nose and walked up to the chair. "Rodney, you are affecting power all over the city."

"I know, Awesome, isn't it?"

"No. I can't work."

Alice stepped up beside them. "It's just temporary." Rodney mumbled.

"Rodney, I'm trying to determine if that device did any permanent damage to you. Quite frankly, given your usually rampant hypochondria, I'm surprised you don't seem to care."

Rodney turned his head and looks at him. "You're jealous."

"That is ridiculous. You should be working with me trying to figure out what is happening to you. Instead, you're here burying your head in the sand." Radek started raising his voice.

"That is not true." He looked up above the Chair to the holograms projected above. "My head - which happens to be housing my ever-evolving brain - is actually being better utilised here doing important things that will affect everybody."

Radek sighed and looked at Alice. She shrugged. "I'll come back and help. There's not much I can do here. I have a program recording everything he's doing anyways." Radek muttered in Czech throwing his hands up in the air exasperatedly. "Esposito, can you take over." She handed her the main datapad and followed as Radek stormed out of the chair room.

—

Alice tapped on her screen. They'd been partially able to reactivate the panel, but it was in a very delicate spot. "Alright Radek I'm going to start feeding in more power through the bypass."

Right before Alice could adjust the settings, the room plunged into darkness.

"That's it." Radek slammed his note pad down on the console. "I will kill him, he is nuts, complete idiot."

Alice pulled up the city's power system on her datapad. Her fingers moving quickly over the screen. The crystals lit up as she worked, she reached out to start rearranging them, to account for the power change. "Radek, just give it a minute. I can divert power from another section. Just give me one more-" The warning appeared just seconds before she heard the familiar high-pitched sound of an energy surge. The crystal tray erupted into a explosion of sparks surging up towards her hands. She let out a shriek of pain and was thrown backwards against the wall, narrowly missing an arc of blue electricity as it shot across the wall and out the door.

Her relief only lasted a few seconds as she heard a blood curling scream. "Radek!" Ignoring the pain in her hands she ran outside. The Czech scientist was lying face down, smoke coming off his body. "Medical Emergency! We need help in corridor Alpha Gulf seven."

Alice rolled Radek onto his back and placed two fingers on his neck. Nothing. She dropped her head onto his chest ignoring the smell of burnt flesh. Whilst she listened for a heart beat she watched for any sign of breathing. Again nothing. "Come on Radek." She sat up positioning her hands on his chest and started pumping her hands down on his chest. 28...29...30. She stopped tilting his head back and pinching his nose she breathed into his mouth and then resumed compressing his chest. "Don't do this to me."

"Aly!" Carson came screaming around the corner with a team of medics in his wake.

"Here!" She cried, moving back allowing Carson to take over. "He's not breathing and I can't find a pulse." Her voice was trembling.

"Okay, we need to get him to the infirmary now." Carson ordered and the other medics started prepping the gurney, placing an oxygen pump over his mouth. Alice reached up and wiped her face, taking in a sharp intake of breath. "Oh god your hands." Carson was looking at her.

Alice didn't know what he was talking about, then a dull throb started in her hands and she realised her entire body was trembling. She pulled her hands away from her face to see them bleeding and burnt.

"Nurse!" Carson yelled and gestured to Alice.

Before she knew it her hands were being wrapped in salve and she was on her way with Radek to the infirmary. Carson riding on the edge still administering CPR.

The nurse led Alice to a bed, but she couldn't take her eyes of Carson and Radek. "Come on, Radek, come on. He's not breathing - we need to intubate. Start an I.V., wide open. Get that monitor set up." They stopped the gurney beside a bed. "Right - on my count. One, two, three."

The team pulled Radek across onto the bed. Alice flinched as the nurse pulled back her bandaging, but she didn't take her eyes of Radek. Even from where she was sitting she could see a huge and bloody burn on his chest.

"Radek!" Alice heard Rodney call out, as he ran in the room with John and Elizabeth.

"Get the leads set up, please. He's in V-tach. Prepare to de-fib." The team connected small contacts to Radek's chest. Carson then grabbed the paddles and rubbed them together as the defibrillator whines. "Clear."

"No!" Rodney yelled, stepping forward to Radek's side.

"Rodney, the man is dying." Carson said bewildered.

"I know. Just give me a second. I know." Rodney closed his eyes and put his hands on Radek's chest. Alice stretched up, ignoring the protests from her nurse, as Rodney lifted his hands away, and she could hear Radek drawing in a deep breath.

Carson grabbed his stethoscope and placed in on Radek's chest. "Heart rate's good; breathing's steady." Alice stared at the scene before her in disbelief. "Pulse is good."

Alice slid herself off the bed, careful to keep her hands raised. "Just..." she said to the nurse who had started complaining. Slowly she made her way over to the bed, Radek opened his eyes and was looking up at them in surprise.

"Radek, are you OK?" Elizabeth asked breaking the silence.

He propped himself up onto his elbows, glancing around at them and down at his ripped shirt. "What happened?"

Alice turned to look at Rodney, but when all that she saw was empty space. "Doctor Riley please." The nurse appeared beside her. Her voice a mix between a plea and an order.

"Riles... your hands." John's voice brought her back to her senses.

Alice glanced back down at her hands, the burns had started bleeding again. "I'm fine." She mumbled gently.

"Doctor." The nurse huffed.

"Listen to them." John urged softly, his gently felt like they were gently begging her to just give in for once.

"Okay." Alice felt like her brain couldn't process what had just happened. Radek had died, he wasn't breathing, and Rodney brought him back.

The nurse led her back over to the bed and started treating her hands. John lingered beside her, watching as the nurse started peeling off the first aid bandages.

The burns barely stung as the nurse cleaned the wounds, Alice wasn't sure if that was because of shock or because of the depth of the burn. She kept her head up and her eyes off the burnt flesh, knowing looking at it would only make the pain real. So instead she looked at John, analysing the deep creases in his forehead as he watched the nurse critically.

His gaze drifted as he heard Carson walking over, and before turning away to walk back over to Elizabeth his eyes met hers. "I'm going to have to start reserving a bed here for you now." Carson tutted as he walked over, dismissing the nurse and gently cradling her hands.

Alice carefully shifted her eyes to his. "Sorry Doc..." She could still just make out John glancing occasionally over his shoulder towards her.

Carson sighed. "We'll get you sorted. And while you're here we can check on your nose and cheek as well."

She didn't feel like she had the strength to nod, let alone speak. Everything suddenly felt like it was overwhelming.

—-

Alice stood over the Ancient lab's console. Her hands were completely wrapped with a special salve to heal her burned skin.

According to Carson, she'd received second degree electrical burns to her palms and wrists. Her fingertips still showed through the bandages allowing her to interact with the consoles and tablets. A small blessing.

He'd also given her some strong painkillers as once her shock wore off she's was apparently going to be in for a world of hurt. The pills were currently forgotten in the pocket of her jacket.

Alice stared at the screen, Rodney had tried analysing the machine earlier for a way to reverse the effects but they'd had no luck. He'd given up and said he'd wanted to make the most of his time, but Alice wasn't ready yet. Instead of reversing, she was looking for anything that would allow her to stop or slow the progression. At least buying them some time to figure out a new plan.

"Should you really be working?" John's voice sounded behind her.

Looking over her shoulder she saw him standing casually in the doorway, it looked like he might have been there a few minutes deciding what to say.

It didn't surprise her that he was there, in fact she'd almost expected to see him at some point. "What do you expect me to do? Sit back and watch Rodney die..." Her voice was harsher than intended. She turned back to her console and hit a few more keys.

"This isn't on you. We're going to figure something out." He said gently.

"And how are we going to do that?!" She snapped. "Every minute Rodney's brain evolves more, and pretty soon he's either going to have to ascend or..." she stopped. "And we know Rodney's not exactly the spiritual type. Oh, and not to mention the fact Radek almost died because of my incompetence."

She heard John's footsteps approaching her. "No matter what happens, it won't be because you didn't try."

She let out a harsh laugh. "Yeah and look where me trying has got us so far." Her hands ached as she continued to type harshly on the panel.

"That wasn't your fault." He reached out and grasped her hands.

She winced as his hands brought hers away. "I was adjusting the power relays and must have caused an overload. He almost died because..." Turning away from the screen she looked at John.

"Riles. Rodney was playing with the entire cities power network. There were outages and spikes across the city. It was just a freak accident. And Radek is fine." He looked down at her hands. "If you're not careful you'll make them bleed again. Take a breath."

Alice gave him a sarcastic look. "Why do you care so much?" But he just gave her serious one back. Dropping her eyes she took in a deep breath, and slowly let it out through her mouth.

"Better? Now, how can I help?"

"By leaving." She didn't mean it to come out as harsh as it did, but she also couldn't handle his pity.

John winced slightly, but dipped his head. "I guess I deserve that."

"It's just hard to be around you." Her eyes focused on the console, she didn't want him to see the tears starting to water in her eyes.

She felt him gently let go of her hands "Just because we aren't together doesn't mean we stopped caring about eachother or that we can't be in eachothers lives. Take the pain killers, please." Then he walked out of the room.

It felt like a stone had been dropped in her stomach. For a while she was able to work, her concentration entirely focused on the task at hand. But as her mind grew weary and the pain in her hands intensified she couldn't help but let part of her mind linger on his words. He wanted to be part of her life, even if it wasn't as her partner.

The small part of her mind considered this, and tried to wrap her mind around all their recent interactions and conversations. Since their last screaming match, without her noticing she'd thrown up all her old walls. The barriers she'd created to defend herself.

The walls that interpreted every word and action from John as a threat to her. Something that could hurt her, when it wasn't the case.

She realised her hands had stopped moving on the console. Gently she stretched out her fingers, a small gasp of pain escaped her lips. The skin under the bandages was so fragile every move she made felt like it was tearing apart the scabs that had started to form.

Opening her vest pocket she slipped the tablets onto her tongue. Knowing she wouldn't be able to focus on anything with the strong drugs running through her system, she packed up and headed back to the main tower.

The small part of her mind she'd allowed to dwell on John, grew the closer she got to the tower.

Alice walked back through the halls balancing her tablet on her forearm trying to scroll through pages of text.

"Of course light behaves as particles, why wouldn't you consider..." a muttering Rodney turned the corner, Alice glanced back and forth to see if anyone was following him, but he was alone. And apparently unaware of anything around him as he continued to mutter and head towards his lab. She'd thought he was supposed to be with John and practicing to meditate.

She stopped walking and looked down the way Rodney had come. John's quarters were just three doors down. Alice bit her lip. In her slightly drugged state, she decided she needed to apologise for how she spoke to him earlier. Looking around to make sure no one was around, she slid down the hall and waved her hand over the door panel.

A few seconds later the door opened to John, looking down at a magazine. "Rodney it's not going-" Alice cleared her throat. "Oh. You're not Rodney."

Alice smiled hesitantly. "Glad you can tell. I uh...just saw him going the other way. The meditation not going well?"

John closed the magazine and pinched his nose between his index and middle finger. "You could say that."

Alice felt her face pull into a frown as her eyes drifting back to where she'd last seen Rodney. "But...he'll be able to, right?"

"Maybe once he realises there's no alternative." John shrugged, his eyes drifted over her. "You okay?"

Alice tried to smile, her hands started to ache as she realised she was balling them up into fists. Anxiety made her feel like her chest was about to burst. "Sure. I'll see you later." Pivoting on her heels she headed for the lab.

"Riles." She heard him call out, but she kept walking. She'd completely chickened out.

Alice was so lost in her own thoughts, she almost ran into Elizabeth who was walking out of Rodney's lab. "Sorry!" Alice jumped backwards, but Elizabeth looked like she hadn't even noticed her there. Her eyes were glazed over. "Elizabeth, is everything okay?"

"Hmm" Elizabeth finally stopped and looked up at her. "Oh Alice, sorry I didn't see you there." She gave her a strained smile.

"Yeah…What's going on?" Alice glanced inside the room where she could see Rodney with his head in his hands on the desk. "Is everything okay with Rodney?" Elizabeth went to turn her head back to Rodney, but stopped herself. "I mean more than…right…" Alice scrunched up her face. "I was just going to see if I could help him with his theories."

"I'm sure he'll appreciate that." Elizabeth said, keeping her strained smile plastered on her face. Then she dropped her head walking down the hall.

Alice hesitated at the door, rocking back and forth. Suddenly she didn't feel like this was such a good idea. Flipping her hair behind her shoulders, she took in a breath and walked in the door. "Hey Rodney, how you doing?"

Rodney lifted his head out of his face. "Oh Aly, I…uh…didn't hear you. It's good you're here." He screwed up his face. "I, uh, need to say something to you."

Alice raised her eyebrows. "Sure." She turned to grab a stool, dragging it across and sitting down. "What's up?"

"You've been so good to me." He sighed, Alice's eyes flickered around the room suspiciously wondering if someone was going to jump out from behind a table and yell punk'd. But Rodney looked dead serious. "And I've never truly shown how appreciate I am for it. You've never been afraid to tell me when I'm wrong, and no matter how petty or vindictive I've been you've always had my back." Alice felt like she must have been transported to an alternate universe. "I don't think i've even said thank you to you before."

"Rodney..." Alice started, wanting to stop him. She knew this tone, it was the voice of someone who was sure they were about to die.

"Please don't." He gave her a sad smile, causing Alice to stop speaking. "Now there isn't anything I could about getting you back on active duty, and there's no way I'm going to get in between you and Sheppard." Alice couldn't help let a small smile spread on her cheeks. "But, I know how much this expedition means to you, so I have asked Elizabeth to name you second-in-command of the research and development team."

Alice's jaw almost hit the floor. "What the hell?! You can't do that. There are so many people here that are smarter and more experienced...you just can't..."

Rodney smirked. "Smarter, maybe." He looked smugly down at himself. "But no one is better suited. C'mon you used to be second-in-command of the military division here, you're bright and you're the second best person to go to in a crisis."

Alice shook her head knowing the top person he was talking about was him. "What about Radek?"

Rodney flicked his hand. "He doesn't want that kind of responsibility. You're not getting out of this."

Alice smiled and grabbed Rodney's hand. "Thank you." Then she lunged forward enveloping him into a hug.

"You're welcome. Now, I have some more apologies to go make." He pulled back and headed out the door, but paused. "I know I said I wasn't going to get involved, but you really should talk to Sheppard. He really cares about you." Rodney smiled. "Trust me you don't want to be able to hear his thoughts when you're in the room."

Alice went back to the Ancient lab, there had to be something else she could do. It was hard to picture Atlantis without Rodney, despite how arrogant and pigheaded he could be, he was like a brother to her.

"Doctor Riley, report to the infirmary immediately."

Alice froze, it had to be Rodney. Spinning on the spot she ran for the Infirmary. When she got there Rodney was sat up in a bed cords attached everywhere. "The synaptic activity in your brain has reached over ninety percent." Carson was just finishing up as Alice approached. Teyla and Ronon were standing at Rodney's side. Teyla's hands clasped together so it looked like she was praying. John and Elizabeth were stood on the opposite side. "I don't know why, but it seems the more pervasive evolved state of the cortex is causing lapses in the lower brain function. It's almost as if your body's losing its natural ability to keep itself alive."

"When ascension occurs naturally, the physical body's no longer necessary in the final stages." Elizabeth said softly.

"Rodney, I don't know how much more you can take." Carson sighed.

Rodney smiled faintly. "About six percent?"

"There must be something we can do." John pressed, his voice tense.

"It's OK. You know, I'm actually feeling a sense of peace ... interspersed with moments of sheer terror, of course." Rodney replied weakly.

John knelt down so his head was level with Rodney's. "Rodney, as far as this ascension thing, I know you didn't have much success but at this point, what've you got to lose?"

"May as well go out fighting, huh?" Rodney murmured.

"Absolutely." John agreed.

A new resolve appeared in Rodney's face. "Hook me up." Carson nodded and picked up the headband. "Carson? Thank you. Thank you for everything."

"I only wish I could have done more, my friend." Carson attached the headband to Rodney's head, then activated it.

"Clear blue skies. All my troubles, just drifting away. OK ..." Rodney whispered, closing his eyes. "... stop talking now."

Alice looked up to see John smiling to himself. "Rodney, you're a good person. Know that we love you." Elizabeth grabbed his hand.

Rodney smiled. "You love me? Really? All of you?"

"In a way a friend feels about another friend." John added awkwardly.

"You're just saying that because I'm gonna die." The heart monitor increased slightly. "Oh, God. I can't believe I'm gonna die."

John exchanged an alarmed glance with Elizabeth. "Alright - just back to the blue skies. Let your thoughts go. Concentrate on your breathing."

Alice clenched her hands together her eyes focused on the EEG. Slowly it beeped, dropping from 03 Hz to 2 and then to 1Hz. Carson looked away. "Oh, my God." His voice was so broken and wracked with grief.

Alice and the others jumped back as Rodney surged up in the bed, grabbing Carson by the lapels of his medical coat. Then as quickly as it happened, machines started beeping frantically and Rodney dropped back onto the bed convulsing. Carson didn't waste a second. "He's not breathing. Quick, bag him. We need to get him on a ventilator."

Alice pursed her lips, finding it difficult to watch. "Carson, he gave us strict orders ..."

"You don't understand. He just told me how to save him."

—-

For the second time that day, Alice stood in front of John's door. Rodney's plan had worked and they'd been able to reverse the effects of the machine by using DNA samples Carson had of his in storage.

But Rodney's words had stuck with her. If anything, the last couple of days reminded her that anything can happen, at any time, and she needed to say what she needed to say before the chance was taken away from her.

She waved her bandaged hand over the crystals then took a step back, her hands clasped behind her back. It was almost midnight, but she knew John would still be awake, just like she knew he would answer the door dressed in a pair of track pants, a panda shirt and a beer in his hand. "Riles?" He looked around warily. "Is everything okay?"

She pulled her shoulders down and swallowed her nerves. "Yeah, fine. I…um…would it be okay if I came in?"

John looked suspiciously at her, but took a sip of the beer in his hand and gestured for her to come in. Alice stepped inside and walked over to take a seat on the sofa. She'd spent so much time in here that it felt weird to be treated as a visitor.

John went to the small fridge in the corner of his room - a new addition since she'd last been here - and fished out another beer. He walked over, opening it before he handed it to her then sat down on his desk chair opposite her. He picked at the rim of his can. He didn't say anything, she knew he was waiting for her to start.

She took a gulp of the beer, hoping it would help settle the butterflies in her stomach. "I've been thinking about what you said…You were right, just because we aren't…together… doesn't mean we stopped caring." She took in a small breath to steady her voice. "I've been thinking a lot about us. I know I can't take back what I did, and I don't regret staying. But I realised I never said sorry." She sighed, dropping her eyes to the floor. "I'm sorry for snapping at you earlier, and for everything else." She stopped, waiting for him to say something. Maybe yell at her, or tell her she was being ridiculous.

John's eyes were focused on the can in his hand. Alice felt her heart jump into her throat as she waited for him to speak. "Do you know that I thought…Every time I see you it's like someone ripping off a bandaid, over and over again." He stopped. Her heart sank, and a hollow opened up within her, filling her with coldness. He took in a strained breath. "Six months..." John said softly. "Do you know how much I hated you during that time?"

Alice felt tears streaming down her face now. "I never meant to hurt you. But, I was scared…and I was wrong." She could hear her voice trembling, but she needed him to know. Before she'd left, the thought of a future of a commitment to John had felt suffocating. But after spending time with the Athosians and seeing them live with their families, no labels or official titles like marriage had changed her mind. She wanted to be with him, and just be them. "I never thought I'd see you again, and while I was on New Athos it was easy to pretend I did the right thing. That I was fine without you. But being around you again, seeing you I realise how wrong I was."

John looked broken, defeated. He slumped back down on his chair. Alice had never seen him like that before. "I know, but you still did it. And as much as I want to move past this, I don't think I can." His eyes wouldn't meet hers.

Alice wiped her eyes, taking in a shaky breath. "Okay." There was nothing more to say now. Gently placing the beer can down on the side she rose from her chair and walked towards the door.

She felt something warm grab her hand. Tears had already started streaming down her face, but she turned around to face him. "But it doesn't mean I don't care. Maybe we could just be…" she knew he was going to say friends, and also how lame it would same. The face John was pulling told her he thought the same.

"Friends." She said softly, letting a smile tug on the corner of her mouth. Then without another word she walked out the door.

A weight felt like it had been lifted from her shoulders, but despite that, there was a distinct pain in her heart that felt like it was being torn apart. Out of all the injuries she'd ever suffered, including her still burnt hands, this was worse.


	38. Chapter 38

**A/N two chapter updates in one day! what! make sure you've read the previous chapter before starting here!**

 **Happy reading!**

Alice felt the mat soften under her weight, and the cracks of the material under her toes. A cool breeze from a nearby window blew gently across her back. She was supposed to be concentrating on Ronon, who had marched into her room earlier that morning and basically dragged her out of bed. Telling her she'd been slacking on her training. But as hard as she tried to focus on his attacks, she found her mind kept drifting back to a certain Colonel.

It had been hard at first, every time she saw John she felt the same sadness well up inside her. But as the days drew on the sting seemed to lessen, especially as he made an effort to make things seem less awkward than they should be. He was back to smiling and giving her a friendly nod as they passed by each other in the corridor, and even extending an invitation to join his table at lunch. They'd even been able to laugh and share a few jokes.

Hit. Alice groaned as Ronon's fist connected with her forearm. "Pay attention." Ronon growled.

Wincing, she rubbed the skin that had already turned red. "Sorry." She mumbled, raising her fists as Ronon stalked around the mat. Shaking her head, she kept her eyes on Ronon's feet, trying to anticipate his next move.

Ronon stood opposite her, bouncing from foot to foot trying to determine the best way to strike, his eyes narrow and dangerous. She darted forward jabbing her hand out to catch him in his throat, she'd timed it perfectly so it landed the same time he'd switched his balance. Ronon grunted and went stumbling back onto the ground. He let out a deep chuckle. "That's what I'm talking about. But you're still slow. Again." He sprang back up from the mat and resumed his stance.

Alice shook her hands out and once again placed them up in front of her face. She knew her movements were sluggish and unrefined, she had definitely been slacking off recently.

She took in a breath and prepared, this time though, Ronon acted first. Faking a left jab, he spun around catching Alice in the side. She managed to deflect most of the power of his punch with her arm, but it still hurt. She tried to get inside his reach, but Ronon wasn't taking it easy on her today. He landed jab after jab on her sides. Thinking quickly, she allowed him to catch her again. But this time she grabbed the arm as it struck her and pulled him into an arm lock. Then using his arm as leverage sprung her feet off the ground and kicked him back in the chest.

Unlike last time, he didn't fall back. His hand twisted around to grip her wrist and she felt herself being lifted off the ground. The wind completely left her body as she crashed down onto the mat. She could have sworn she saw stars. "Woah…" she said as the breath left her body.

"Enjoying your rest?"

Alice peeked open an eye, to see John standing over her. She let out a small groan. "Don't be a dick." She stretched out her hand towards him. "I've knocked you flat on this mat myself more than a few times."

He stepped over her then his hand reached down and clasped her wrist. He gave her a yank and she used his energy to pull herself back up. "Not as spectacularly." His face was pulled into a grin.

Ronon was stood off to the side pouring water into his mouth, his eyes glancing back and forth between the two of them. Everyone on the team was like this, they'd all sensed the change between them, and Alice was sure she'd overheard Ronon betting on her and John being back together in the next month with some of the other marines.

Alice huffed, her head still spinning slightly. "So you here just to mock me?"

"No, Lorne's team is heading off-world. Lt. Maddox is confined to the infirmary, somehow managed to trip down the stairs and give himself a concussion." John raised an eyebrow, as if considering how someone could be that clumsy. "I've volunteered you to take his place. Gear up, they're waiting in the Jumper for you."

Alice hesitated, she saw this for what it was; an olive branch. Smiling she started walking backwards to the door. "I'm gonna go, before you change your mind." She spun around. "Ronon, rematch later!"

—-—

Once she'd geared up Alice headed for the jumper bay. Evan and his team were stood waiting for her. "Looking good Riley." Evan smiled. Alice gave him a grin back. "Right, we're heading to M4D-058. Reports suggest a typical low-tech society, so we go in and see what intel we can gather and then decide if we make first contact." The team nodded and Evan led them inside the jumper. "Aly take point?"

Alice couldn't help but bounce on her heels in excitement, it was the first time in two months she'd actually gotten to fly a Jumper rather than just fix one. "Yes sir." She slid into the pilots chair and began her pre-flight checks as Evan dialled the gate.

"Alright. Move out." Evan said from her left. "Just like old times, right?" He grinned.

Alice laughed and guided the jumper through the event horizon. The last time her and Evan had been on a team together was back on SG-11. As they rematerialised on the other side Alice immediately cloaked the jumper. "I've got several signals up ahead." She activated the HUD to show the small signals up ahead.

"Ships?" Evan asked.

"Too small, they look like satellites." She tapped a few controls, using the long range scanners to bring up a more detailed view of the objects. "Woah." The HUD showed a number of satellites organised in geosynchronous orbit laid out in an exact grid. "And there's a lot of them."

"Are there any life signs on the planet?" Evan asked.

Alice nodded. "Hundreds, in the space directly below the satellites." She turned to look at him. "Could be an advanced race?"

"Maybe..." Evan was still staring at the image of the satellites. "Okay, let's take a closer look but keep us cloaked."

"Moving in." Alice turned back to the controls and flew the Jumper down towards the planet. As they got closer the HUD showed a layout of the planet's surface. "It looks like there's two main settlements, separated by a large river." She looked over at Evan. "Which one do you want to go to first?"

Evan narrowed his eyes at the map and pointed to the settlement closest to him.

Alice landed the jumper and together the team headed for the edge of the town. "Aly, you and Tyler cover our six. We're on recon so let's stay low and quiet." The team nodded in agreement and the headed towards the small settlement.

As they approached the boundary of the town, keeping as low as possible. Alice held out an Ancient scanner and crept up beside Evan. "I'm not picking up any signals or frequencies. Nothing that would suggest these people built those satellites." She reported in a low whisper.

Evan nodded and gestured to his two other team mates to move ahead. Alice put the scanner back in her vest, and put both hands back on her gun. She hung back waiting for the others to move past her and take her position up at the rear.

Creeping forward they approached a boundary wall. Evan held up his fist and they took up positions behind it. Telling the others to stay down, he peeked his head up and looked over the wall. "No way..." he muttered, sliding back down against the wall.

Alice raised an eyebrow. "What is it?" She asked.

—-

Alice headed back for the Jumper. Once she was out of sight of the village, she picked up her pace into a jog. As soon as the rear hatch closed she slipped into the pilot's seat. The Jumper powered up at a single thought.

Alice tried to hide her grin. The instant the rear door sealed, she lowered the inertial dampeners slightly and accelerated into the atmosphere. Normally at the speed and angle she was travelling the g force would have knocked her unconscious. But right now, she was only pulling around 3 to 4g, cheap change for any air force pilot.

Alice couldn't help but smile, as she felt adrenaline pulsing through her. She just wasn't built to be sat in a lab all day everyday. "Elizabeth, this is SGA-2, come in."

A second later the HUD flickered and Elizabeth and John's image appeared. "We're reading you loud and clear Riles."

Alice straightened her posture, feeling like a kid who was about to be caught out doing something they shouldn't. "I'm patching through Major Lorne now, he's got something he wants to show you both and Rodney."

Elizabeth gestured off-screen as Alice hit a few keys and connected the call to Evan's transmission from the surface. "Dr. Weir, Colonel." Evan was still crouched behind the wall on the outskirts of the village. "Is Dr. McKay there?"

"I'm here!" Alice heard Rodney's voice from off-screen and then a moment later he was pushing John aside to stand in view of the screen.

"Right..." Evan paused, pursing his lips. "We came through the space Gate and immediately noticed a bunch of small satellites in geosynchronous orbit above the planet."

"An advanced civilisation?" Elizabeth interjected, echoing hers and Evan's original thoughts.

Evan nodded. "That's what we thought, then we picked up life signs directly below, so we flew down, saw several villages separated by a large river and decided to check one of them out, and as you can see ... Sergeant? ..." the camera panned and peeked over the wall to show A typically simple group of villagers. One of them is pushing a cart with a sack on it. "... these people don't exactly look like they're ready to be launching any satellites - at least not for the next five hundred years or so."

John put his hands on his hips. "The Ancients probably put 'em up there."

"That's what we thought, they definitely look like Ancient tech." Alice added.

"Mmm." Rodney mumbled, already sounding bored.

Elizabeth turned to him. "Send a science team to check it out."

Evan grinned as his sergeant aims the camera back at him and they ducked down out of sight again. "Uh, actually, I think Doctor McKay may wanna come check this one out for himself."

"Why?" Rodney said confused.

"Take a look." The camera poked back over the wall and zoomed in. On the opposite side of the village square, a flag was flying. It had a vertical red stripe on each side and a central white area and looks eerily similar to the Canadian national flag. In the middle of the white area was a picture of a man who looks suspiciously familiar. Alice couldn't help but laugh as Elizabeth, John and Rodney stared blankly at the screen.

Elizabeth blinked a couple of times. "Major, have your team report back to Atlantis." Then the screen went blank.

"Aly, swing back down and meet us at the original landing site." Evan said through the radio.

"Copy that. See you in a few minutes."

—

Alice couldn't believe what John and Rodney had been up to playing this 'game'. Though who else would end up causing two peaceful civilisations to turn against each other to become mortal enemies. Sometimes she wasn't sure how John and Rodney were even friends.

Radek had been assigned with Evan to check out this 'game', whilst John's team managed the situation on the ground. That left Alice back where she spent most mornings, sat in her lab glancing at a screen of Ancient text. The adrenaline rush she'd had from taking the Jumper out was starting to wear thin now.

They'd been here about three years now and they'd only been able to translate about 20% of the Ancient's entire database. It probably would have been more if they weren't at war with the Wraith, but the database was just so vast, they still had no idea what was even on it.

As Rodney was off-world, it was up to Alice to run the bi-weekly team leads meeting to check on the status of the different projects, and if necessary reassign any teams. It wasn't that she didn't enjoy these meetings, but there was still a small amount of resentment amongst some of the older more experienced scientists that she'd been given the deputy head role.

At any time, they probably had 20 live projects - not including Rodney's side projects, which Alice had now lost track of. Grabbing her tablet, she trudged towards the science briefing room.

All of the team leads were already sat in their places when she arrived. "Afternoon." She muttered, walking in to take her seat. "Shall we get started then." Alice listened in turn to each of the team leads report on the progress of their projects, their recommendations on whether the project was still viable, or if it would be best to shelve it and come back to it later. Alice doodled notes on her datapad, and after an hour and half the meeting was finally over. Alice had cut three projects and refocused those teams on the Ancient database and the new systems the Ancient's had activated during their time here.

People mulled about, breaking off into small clusters chatting quietly amongst themselves. Mostly they seemed excited, she'd expected more resistance from some of the team leaders when she cut their projects, but they seemed more than happy to oblige. Though it might have one of the few meetings where someone hadn't been publicly embarrassed by Rodney.

She stretched her arms up and tilted her chest over to the side, feeling the muscles on her ribs extending. "Doctor Riley?" A man's voice surprised her. Dropping her arms she swivelled her body around to see a sandy blonde man stood before her. She blinked slowly as she took in his appearance.

He was tall and well built, different to most of the other scientists in the room, in fact he looked like he be better suited to a black trim uniform than a blue one. But it was his face that drew in Alice's attention. His eyes were a deep blue, and his smile was ever so slightly crooked. Heat rushed into her cheeks as she realised she was staring at him with her mouth slightly open. "Hi!" She said slightly too enthusiastically. She swallowed. "How...how can I help you?" She wanted to mentally slap herself, could she sound anymore like a star-struck teenager.

He laughed softly, it floated through the air like a melody. "I was wondering if you wouldn't mind taking a look over these logs. I'm afraid my Ancient still isn't all that good, and I'd like a second opinion." He had a soft British accent, that warmed her insides, making her cheeks flush again.

Straightening up she smiled. "Sure, I can take a look. I was actually just about to grab lunch but-" she reached out to take the tablet.

"Brilliant, let's make it a lunch date then!" He said enthusiastically, slipping his tablet under his arm.

Alice blinked, slightly stunned. "O...okay. Sorry I didn't get your name."

The man stepped back, allowing Alice to slip down off her chair and onto the floor with a soft thud. "Doctor Charlie Morrison. Call me Charlie." He held out his free hand to her.

Alice felt her heart beat jump as she took his hand. "Charlie." His name rolled lightly off her tongue. "Well you can call me Alice, or my friends call me Aly."

"Alice." His hand was warm as it wrapped around hers. His smile broadened as she realised her hand was still in his. Clearing her throat she slid her hand back and shoved it into her jacket pocket. Once again feeling her cheeks redden. "Shall we?" He gestured towards the door.

Alice pursed her lips and headed through the door, leading the way to the mess hall. "So how long have you been on Atlantis?"

Charlie let out a shy laugh. "Since the expedition returned to Pegasus."

Alice mentally winced. "I'm so sorry, I thought I would have noticed someone like you." She cringed, biting her cheek.

"I tend to keep to myself, and you seem to have been very busy recently." Charlie seemed amused by her awkward statements.

"Right." Was all Alice could think to say. Together they walked into the mess hall and grabbed some food, without thinking Alice took her usual two blue jellos.

"Blue jelly huh?" Charlie was staring down at her tray with an eyebrow raised.

"Uh, it's my favourite." Alice said plainly shrugging and turned away to a nearby table, Charlie following her. She kicked out the chair and sat down opposite the blonde scientist. "So, these logs?"

Charlie placed the datapad down on the table beside him but made no love to activate it or show her. "I have to admit I may have gotten you here under slightly false pretences."

Alice tilted her head. "Oh really? So no difficult to read Ancient logs" She wasn't sure where this was going.

Charlie smiled warmly at her, reaching up to scratch the back of his neck. "Oh no, there are plenty of those. But really I just wanted to ask you to lunch."

Alice sat up straighter, her hand rubbing the side of her face. She didn't know where to look. "Okay." She said finally, feeling uneasy. "Well here we are."

Charlie let out a small laugh. "Yes we are. I hope this is okay?"

Alice pursed her lips. "Yes. It's fine." Though she felt a small bubble of guilt building in the pit of her stomach. Even though they weren't together, being with someone else right now just didn't seem appropriate. She dipped her spoon into the jelly taking a mouthful, hoping that Charlie would lead the conversation. But he just took a bite of his own food. Not wanting to sit in silence, Alice held her hand to cover her mouth. "What department do you work with?"

"Geophysics, but we're not going to talk about work."

"We're not?" Alice raised an eyebrow.

Charlie put down his sandwich. "Tell me about you?"

Alice blinked, it was such an open question and the answer wasn't all that interesting. She was a military brat that signed her youth away to be a soldier. "Um...well I'm originally from California. I joined the military right out of high school and-"

"No." Charlie laughed. "Tell me something I can't just read in your file."

Alice fidgeted and narrowed her eyes. She didn't like being embarrassed. "Why don't you start?"

Charlie leaned back in his chair. "Very well. As you can tell I'm British, and I have an unfathomable desire to understand the things people say are beyond our understanding. Though my friends call it arrogance." He grinned, as Alice let out a small laugh. "I'm an avid reader and have a tendency to ramble on about ancient history."

Alice put her sandwich down and ran her tongue over her top teeth. "Wow. I have to say I think I agree with your friends."

He opened his hands out gesturing to her. "Your turn."

Alice rested her elbows on the table and clasped her hands together In front of her face. "Fine. I have always dreamt of being apart of something bigger than myself, something to give me a purpose in life. Which is why I'm here. Atlantis is my life, and the people here have become my family." She dropped her shoulders, feeling herself relax slightly. "If you asked them they'd tell you to make sure you have a spot reserved in the infirmary, as I'm quite accident prone."

Charlie dropped forward, the movement was so sudden and fluid, it didn't register in Alice's head until she realised how close his face was to hers. Instantly her spine stiffened and she pulled back. "Aly?" Alice turned her head as she heard Teyla's soft voice.

"Teyla. Hi!" Alice cleared her throat, a sense of relief flushed through her.

"Would you mind if we joined you?" Teyla said, nodding her head over to Ronon who was still filling his tray.

"Of course." Alice said maybe a bit too quickly. "Teyla this is Doctor Morrison."

Teyla sat down next to Alice and held her hand out to accept Charlie's handshake. "Call me Charlie."

"It is a pleasure to meet you." Teyla dipped her head, and gave Alice a side glance. She tried to suppress a groan, Teyla would definitely be asking her about this later. "This is Ronon."

Charlie looked over his shoulder as Ronon approached. But to Alice's surprise Ronon clapped Charlie on the shoulder. "Hey Charlie, how you going?"

"Very well thanks, and you?" Charlie replied smiling back.

Alice point back and forth between the two of them. "Wait. How do you two?"

"Charlie is one of the few scientists that was brave enough to join my sparring class." Ronon slumped down into his chair and started shovelling food into his mouth.

"Right..." Alice scrunched up her nose and had to divert her eyes away. "So you guys still trying to sort out the issues on M4D-058?"

Teyla sighed in obvious frustration. "Colonel Sheppard and Rodney are still trying to negotiate a peaceful resolution."

Alice rolled her eyes. "Only those two could do something so stupid."

Ronon grunted in agreement. Charlie's eyes darted back and forth between them. "What did they do?"

Alice exchanged a glance with Teyla, who dipped her head softly. Alice then started explaining what they had found on the planet. "And that's how our two biggest idiots managed to start a planetary war." She smiled affectionately as she said it, stabbing her spoon into her jello.

"Interesting." Charlie narrowed his eyes thoughtfully. Then he clapped his hands together and pushed away from the table. "Well I should be getting back to it. It was lovely to meet you Teyla." He started picking up his tray.

Ronon grunted a goodbye with a full mouth and Teyla just smiled. "I'll see you later, and we can take a look over those logs you mentioned." Alice gave him a sly smile. Charlie winked and then headed away from them.

Teyla had her eyes trained on him as he walked away. "He is very attractive. Is he new?"

Alice put a spoon in her mouth, taking her time to answer her. "No apparently he came back with the expedition three months ago." She purposefully didn't acknowledge the attractive comment.

"He's a good man, though his technique needs more work." Ronon commented.

Teyla let out a small tch. "So you were just having a work lunch?" She asked with a raised eyebrow.

Alice took in a sharp inhale. "He's a colleague, nothing more." Teyla nodded, but she didn't seem convinced. "I need to get going. I'll catch up to you later." Alice shoved the last drop of jello into her mouth and picked up her tray.

"Don't think I'm letting you off that easily. Sparring later." Ronon reminded her. "You're still too slow."

Alice bit her lip to stop a smart retort, instead she just flicked her hand at him to acknowledge him. Then returned to the lab.

On her way she saw Rodney, John and Elizabeth leading two people, a man and a woman through the halls towards the 'game room'. She assumed they must be representatives from the planet Teyla mentioned, and it was easy to tell which one came from John's settlement. The man was dressed in all black, medieval looking leather armour. Very militaristic and rough looking compared to the poised blonde haired woman walking beside him. Who had a surprising resemblance to Colonel Carter... Rodney could barely keep it in his pants around the Colonel.

John caught her eye as she stared at them, making her gut churn. She lifted her hand to offer him a small wave. The corners of his mouth twisted up, and he nodded softly in response.

It was sign, albeit small, that they still stood a chance of having some sort of connection. Even if it was just as friends. That thought warmed her. More than any smile or flirty remark from anyone else could.

She sighed and continued back to her lab. Her mind had more important things to dwell on.

—-

The next week passed by, each day felt like a step forward back to some kind of normal.

She was doing a lot better, in fact she was starting to actually feel happy. She laughed, and spent time with her friends. Ronon continued to drag her out of bed every morning for a spar, Teyla was always up for lunch and Carson dropped by every afternoon for a chat. Evan had been offworld a lot more recently, but when he was around he spent most, if not all, his free time with her. She'd even managed to have breakfast or dinner almost everyday with her entire team, John included.

She'd seen Charlie around more, he'd asked her to lunch again, but she'd managed to find an excuse to decline. The last thing that was on her mind right now was dating. Though she knew she needed to make it clear to him sooner or later.

Shrugging on her jacket she grabbed her datapad and headed out of her room. Stifling a yawn, and covering her mouth with the back of her hand she walked towards the control room. Chuck had been having some problems with the systems and asked her to check it out. "There you are!" Alice felt herself stiffen as she heard Charlie's soft British accent. Heavy footsteps clapped behind her, she glanced to the side as a blob of blonde hair appeared next to her.

Forcing a smile, she tried her best to sound cheery. "Good morning."

Charlie smiled back, it looked like her smile was believable at least. "What are you doing for lunch today?" He held up his hand as she opened her mouth to reply. "Before you say anything, I already checked your work schedule and asked Teyla if you had lunch plans."

Alice scoffed. "You're certainly thorough."

"Just persistent. Though if you'd prefer we could always go for breakfast now?"

Alice started chewing on her cheek, her eyes shifting back to the corridor. "Look Charlie..."

Charlie stopped walking. "Would you just tell me what it is? I'm a big man, if you aren't interested you can just say it." His jaw tightened, and she could tell he was being serious.

She tried not to flinch as her teeth bit through the skin of her cheek. The rusty tang of blood filling her mouth. "It's complicated. I was with someone recently and..." She hoped she didn't have to finish the sentence.

"Then that's his loss. But that's over right?" He didn't wait for an answer. "You're allowed to go for lunch, you know that right?" Charlie asked it as though it was a serious question.

"Of course." Alice blurted out defensively. But as soon as she said it she realised how it sounded. "How about we just try for friends right now?"

Charlie smiled like he'd won. "Sounds great. So tell me, what do you typically do with your friends?"

Alice smirked. "Have you ever played Predator?" Evan had invited her to join the Airmen take on the Marines later tonight. But she was sure there would be space for an extra.

Charlie smirked. "No, but it sounds like a date." Then held his hands up. "Just an expression, I promise." He stepped away, a triumphant look on his face. "I'll see you tonight."

"Make sure you wear black, and be prepared for a few bruises." Alice laughed, and for the first time in weeks her whole body felt lighter. Walking to the control room, each step she felt like a cloud of darkness was lifting off her head. By the time she reached the control room, she almost felt normal. "Morning Chuck."

"Morning Alice." Chuck swivelled his chair back. "Thank god you're here. The command system has been touch and go all day."

Alice knitted her eyebrows together. "That's strange. Okay, let me have a look." She bent over so she was level with his laptop. She start typing bring up the logs and trying to find the cause of the issue. "It doesn't look like anything's wrong...but..." she hit a few more keys bringing up a command override box. "I've reset the system so it should have cleared any bad code. Let me know if it still acts up though."

Chuck grinned. "Thanks." He swivelled his chair back towards and console as Alice straightened up. She started to head down off the platform towards the stairs when the gate started dialling. "Hey, you might want to stick around for this." He said, then called in Elizabeth from her office.

Alice stepped back up the platform. "Who is it?"

"Sheppard, they've found some ancient space station dug into an asteroid." He said enthusiastically.

"Really?" Even Alice had to admit that was interesting.

Elizabeth gave her a nod of greeting as the wormhole connected and Chuck gave her the thumbs up. "Colonel Sheppard, do you read me?"

Alice dragged over a chair and sat straining her ears as the audio crackled. "Loud and clear, and your timing's perfect. Now, you need to get Beckett here with a rescue team and some cutting equipment as soon as possible." John spoke fast and it sounded like he was straining for breath.

Alice didn't need to wait for Elizabeth's approval, she hit her earpiece and told Carson to head to the Jumper bay. Elizabeth's face was tense. "What's happened?"

John took in a raspy breath. "We've got ourselves in a damaged moonbase in a decaying orbit, cut off from each other, and we lost the Jumper. That happened. Well, there's more to it than that, but you get the idea."

Alice stood up, contacting Evan and asking him to meet her no questions in the Jumper bay. She cast a glance over her shoulder at Elizabeth before she started climbing the stairs. Elizabeth gave her an approving nod. "Help is on its way. What else can we do?"

"Hurry!" Ronon yelled through the comm.

Alice spun around and ran up the step, her heart beating in time with ever footstep. She was the first in the Jumper bay. She grabbed a tac vest out of the emergency supplies they kept in the bay, and ran into the nearest Jumper. As normal, the lights and systems started powering up the minute they sensed her presence. Throwing herself into the pilots chair she prepped for take-off. "Aly?!" Carson ran into the ship panting, loaded up with medical bags. He dropped them on the rear seats and moved into the cockpit. "What's the situation?"

Without looking away from the controls Alice answered. "Evan is coming, I'll explain when he's here. Get ready."

Evan ran in the rear hatch a few moments later with Lloyd. "I grabbed who I could." He said taking a gasp of air.

"Everyone take a seat. Colonel Sheppard's team are trapped on an alien space station, there are casualties but they didn't say how bad." Alice started explaining as Evan took the co-pilot's seat. "Control, we're ready."

Alice deployed the engines as soon as they exited the space gate. She could see the asteroid John had described in the distance, debris was floating in the wake of it as it moved slowly towards the planet. Alice hit the comms. Evan stood up and started suiting up into space suits. "John, this is Riley, we're en route we should have you out of there in no time." she tried to sound reassuring.

"Understood. You're gonna have to convert the Jumper's cloak into a shield and extend it to the station to create a seal." John said.

"Already on it." Alice said as she hit a few keys on her datapad. Luckily she had picked the Jumper that was already set up.

Carson stumbled forward awkwardly in his spacesuit. "How are my patients doin'?"

"Jamus could use your help." John replied. Alice blinked as she tried to remind herself which one Jamus was - the leader of the race that built the station.

"Tell 'em we'll be there in a jiff." Carson had a much more convincing reassuring voice than she did. He squeezed Alice's shoulder and moved back into the rear compartment.

Alice concentrated harder as she closed in and had to manoeuvre around the debris. The hanger approached and Alice could make out a spaceship and the remains of a second airlock. "Okay, this may get a bit sticky." She called back to the men in the back. Taking in a breath she focused on backing the ship up in line with the airlock, retracting the engines so they didn't get stuck. "We're in." She sighed.

Climbing over the seat she watched as Evan and Carson secured the helmets of their suits. "I'll keep the engines warm." She gave them a small smiled and closed the door to the cockpit.

Now all she could do was wait. Normally, she wouldn't have let herself be the one holding down the jumper, but it was the only option. Reading her mind, the HUD shifted showing her life signs readings from the station. It wasn't exactly a map, but she could at least monitor the mission. There were three moving dots leaving the hanger, Evan, Lloyd and Carson. Then another three clusters of dots. Two pairs and one isolated. The pairs had to be John and Ronon, and the other Teyla and Jamus. Leaving Rodney as the lone dot. Though she had no way to differentiate between them.

She started picking her fingers, as she watched Evan and Lloyd meet up with Rodney, and Carson broke off heading towards one of the pairs. That must've been Teyla. "Aly, come in." Evan's voice called to her through the radio.

She hit a button on the dash. "Loud and clear."

"We're starting the repair on the door. Let me know when sensors detect a good seal."

Alice zoomed the map into Evan's position, adjusting the jumper's sensors to detect the pressure inside the station. "Alright, ready."

Minutes went by, the temperature surrounding Evan slowly increased as he welded the damaged hatch. "Looks like we've got a good seal on the damaged hatch."

Alice checked her readings. "Confirmed. The station is repressurising." She waited until oxygen levels were over 15%. "Okay, you're good to go." The Jumper shuddered as the asteroid rumbled. Warnings flashed up on the HUD. They're were getting dangerously close to the atmosphere of the planet. "John, Teyla, you're safe to open your hatches."

"Great! how much time do we have?" John asked.

Alice glanced back at all the warnings. "Not much." She watched as John and Ronon's dots moved quickly out of their room to join with Carson and Teyla's. But they all stopped outside of the door to her compartment.

"Teyla? Open up the door - we've gotta get out of here." She heard John's voice through the radio.

"I can't do that, John." Teyla's voice was tense. "Jamus has my sidearm and will not let me leave until we find a way to preserve the storage device."

"Alright. Tell him we'll try."

She kept her voice level as she answered. "I've already done so. He does not believe me."

"Put him on the radio." There was a 10 second delay, before John spoke again. "Jamus, can you hear me?"

"I can." Jamus said.

"I want you to listen carefully. If there was time to save the storage device, we would, you know that. We got into this mess by offering to stick around and help you in the first place. But we can save you - this is your life we're talkin' about, alright? So just open up the door."

"I have her weapon." The moon started shaking again. More warnings flashed on her screen. They were only minutes away from skirting the upper atmosphere.

"This rock is gonna burn up in the atmosphere." John's voice grew increasingly tense.

"Meaning if you don't open this door, you'll die." Carson added.

"Then I will die with my people." Jamus said resolutely.

"OK. Open up the door and let Teyla out and you can die with your people." John's voice lacked any sympathy. She'd seen many different sides of John through the years. There was the warm, soft side, full of fun and jokes. Then there was this ruthless version of John, who would sacrifice anyone and anything if it meant the survival of his team. The last time she'd seen that version of him, he'd killed Kolya. There was no answer from Jamus. "Jamus, we're gonna open up this door one way or the other. And if we have to do it the hard way, my offer to take you with us is off the table."

Alice's foot started bouncing against the chair. As once again the temperature started rising in the area around John. "There is nothing more to say." Jamus replied.

Red warnings flashed, seconds before the Jumper started shaking violently. They'd hit the atmosphere. "John, we've hit the atmosphere."

"I'm going as fast as I can." He snapped back.

She bit her tongue, her hands moving across the dash. They needed more time, but every idea that popped into her head was impossible.

"Colonel! Colonel. You can stop what you're doing now. I'm ready to open the door." Alice's headed jerked back up, as Janus yelled through the radio. The HUD switched back to a view of inside the station, zooming in on the cluster of white dots.

"Now he's ready!" John muttered irritated. "Alright. We're gonna open up the door. I wanna see your weapon on the ground and your hands in the air."

"Sheppard, what's going on? I'm picking up another power surge." Rodney said.

Alice watched her screen, and suddenly two dots vanished. She stood up, staring at the screen. "They're gone!"

"Oh crap..." John muttered. "Jamus zapped both of them into the storage device!"

"I'm on my way." Rodney yelled and his dot started moving back towards the others.

"So am I." Alice twisted and headed to the back of the Jumper.

"No. Riles, stay with the Jumper. If we lose it we're stuck here." John ordered.

Her hand hovered over the cockpit door control. She considered disobeying, but he was right. "Okay." Returning to the pilot's seat she switched the HUD back to monitor the moon's descent into the planet.

The minutes seemed to tick by faster than ever. Every second brought them closer to the planet. She pressed her earpiece. "Evan, we have to go. 10 more minutes and this moon will be nothing but rocks."

"Understood." Then the radio shut off.

She watched anxiously as the dots gathered around each other, then one broke off from the rest, heading away from the Jumper.

—

"What do you mean he's going to fly the shuttle?!" She said sternly into the radio.

"I think he's crazy. The thing's how many hundred years old? And it's out of fuel." Evan replied.

"He said he could fly it." Ronon said defensively.

"Ronon, John thinks he can fly anything." Alice said, this entire plan was ludicrous.

She hit her earpiece again. "John, even if that thing can fly, the chances..."

"I know, but it's Teyla."

Alice swallowed the lump in her throat. John was the best pilot she'd ever met, if there was any chance that this could work, then he'd be the one to do. And he was right, she would be doing the exact same in his place. Any of them would. "Okay." Was all she could say.

John cleared his throat. "Alright. Radio Atlantis as soon as you're clear. Keep a safe distance with the Jumper. I'll try to maintain radio contact."

"I'll see you soon flyboy." Alice said softly.

The others made their way back to the Jumper quickly, throwing themselves into the door and slamming the ramp shut. "Go!" Evan shouted as the cockpit door opened. Alice disconnected the shield, and detached the ship from the station. As soon as they were clear enough, she activated the drive pods and flew it out of the hanger doors.

"Alright. I've got the device locked in place. Looks like internal power switched on automatically. Closing rear hatch now." John reported, she could just see the edge of the shuttle. "See you guys on the ground."

Alice turned her head to exchange a tense look with Evan, who was now sitting in the copilot's chair. He gave her a reassuring nod. "Will do, sir. Good luck." Alice manoeuvred the Jumper clear of the hanger doors and out into open space. "We're clear, sir."

Alice felt a hand rest on the back of her chair. "The moon's decelerating in the upper atmosphere. You've only got a few minutes to familiarise yourself with those controls." Rodney was tense, as she looked up she saw beads of sweat forming on his brow.

"Pretty straightforward." John said.

"We're gonna lose radio contact as you pass through the atmosphere."

"I know, Rodney."

His hand dropped down to touch her shoulder. She'd moved the jumper so they were holding orbit above the moon, but still with a line of sight to the hanger. "I'm saying that if you have anything that you'd like to say, now would be a good time to say ..."

"No, not really." John replied quickly. Alice let out a scoff, unsentimental to the end. "Gettin' some chop."

Rodney turned back to look at his laptop. "Now would probably be a good time to disengage. Hopefully the explosive bolts will throw him clear of the moon."

Alice activated the HUD, to close in tightly on the shuttle. "Initiating separation manoeuvre in three, two, one, mark." Alice held her breath. "Separation is negative. Switching to back-ups." The whole Jumper watched the HUD, in a tense silence. "Disengage. Come on!" She could hear alarms screaming through the radio. "Dammit! The bolts will not work. I repeat: the explosive bolts will not fire. Unable to separate ship. I don't know if you can hear me but it looks like I'm gonna have to ride this one down."

Alice felt her heart thumping in her chest. "What's happening?" Ronon pushed his way past Rodney to stare out the window.

"If he can't separate he'll burn up as the moon breaks through the atmosphere." Her voice was steadier than she thought it would be.

They all watched as the moon started blazing as it descended through the atmosphere. Debris was flying back as it went leaving a comet trail of rock and chunks of the space station. Rodney's hand thrust out in front of Alice's face. "There it is!" The HUD was having a hard time focusing due to the interference around the image, but Alice could just make out the shape of the shuttle as it plunged brightly to the ground. Smoke was pouring out of the back of it, it didn't look like the engines were on. John must be attempting to glide the shuttle down.

"Hang on." Alice started moving the Jumper towards the planet, though she kept one eye glued to the HUD tracking John's descent. Avoiding the debris of the moon as it started breaking up, she headed into the atmosphere. The shuttle stopped moving suddenly, with the interference clearing they could see John had managed to crash land in the middle of what looked like a large desert. "Come on." She muttered to herself, pushing the jumper to its limits.

"Can you tell if he's alive?" Carson whispered.

"Not yet. Wait." Alice gritted her teeth, as she concentrated on manoeuvring the ship. As soon as she cleared the stratosphere the HUD started beeping. "He's alive." It came out as a sigh of relief.

"That's one week's pay you owe me, Rodney." John's voice was weak, but it crackled through the speakers.

Alice let out a laugh, she looked over her shoulder and the rest of the crew were grinning in relief. "Well, technically, I didn't take that bet." Rodney said weakly.

"Hang tight, sir. We're on our way." Evan was smiling.

"Take your time, Major." John sighed. "Take your time."

Alice found them a spot to land a couple of meters away from John's shuttle. She was one of the first out of her seat and running for the door. Evan, Ronon and Carson followed behind her with Rodney taking his time. They had to pry the door open, but could only get it so far. Alice slipped in first, with Carson. As the two smallest it was easier for them. They split into separate directions, there was nothing Alice could do for John, but nothing was going to stop her from saving Teyla.

"Rodney! Get your ass in here now." She said as she examined the casing of the device.

Rodney shuffled in behind her with Evan, who was carrying the small generator. "We need to switch the power over to the generator, before we can detach it."

Alice had already found the connection ports and gestured for Evan to bring the generator around to her. "Okay, on three." She looked Evan in the eyes and together they pulled the cables and switched them over.

Rodney hovered the scanner over the device. "Looks good, we can detach it now."

Alice and Evan stepped around to opposite sides of the device and lifted, unplugging it from its port. It wasn't as heavy as Alice thought it would be. Carefully, they manoeuvred it back out of the shuttle and into the jumper. Evan wiped his brow and looked back to the shuttle. "I'll go check on the doc and see if he needs any help."

Alice nodded, securing the device on the floor of the jumper. Then she took her seat back in the pilot's chair, preparing for the journey back. She heard Evan and Carson return, and as she twisted her head around, saw John braced between the two. "Closing the rear hatch." Evan yelled up to her.

"Alright. Everyone get comfy." She concentrated and flew the Jumper back to the gate.

—-

Alice sat on the edge of Teyla's bed, smiling down at her friend. "I'm glad you're okay."

"It was very strange." Teyla said lifting her hand up to her head. "Though this still isn't necessary." She gestured to the bed.

"Carson's word is law." Alice chuckled. "I just wanted to make sure you were okay."

Teyla reached out and grabbed her hand. "Thank you."

Returning a smile, Alice let go and headed out of the room, passing Elizabeth on her way.

She stood waiting for the transporter to open, when the doors opened and John appeared. "Hey." He said with a casual surprise.

Alice shoved her hands into her pockets. "Hey yourself. You going to see Teyla?" Every word spoken between them, seemed easier and simpler.

"Yeah, want to make sure she's all there. Y'know we don't need about McKay, Cadmen situation."

A laugh passed her lips. "I'd rather we didn't. I'm glad you're okay too. Though you might want Heightmeyer to take a look at that head of yours." She leaned forward and poked John's temple.

John gave her a lopsided grin, his fingers touching the spot she'd poked. "It worked didn't it?"

A small smirk tugged on her lips. "Don't get too cocky, girls don't like that."

John took a step towards her. "Really? The ones I like seem to."

"You realise you owe me one now!" She yelled after him as he stepped around her towards the infirmary.

Swallowing, she looked around her and quickly stepped into the transporter, hoping no one noticed the grin smacked across her face.


	39. Chapter 39

**A/B This has always been such a hard episode to watch because Carson is one of my favourite characters, but it couldn't be avoided.**

 **Sorry in advance to having to relive this episode...**

Alice had been apart of the meeting when Elizabeth had proposed a city wide mandatory day off, one of Dr Heightmeyer's attempt to keep morale at a high.

To her surprise it had been approved by the IOA and the SGC, put into everyone's calendars. Some of the researchers in Alice's team had even started a count down on the wall. But Alice had almost refused to believe it would happen. After all hardly anything ever went to plan in Pegasus.

So whilst everyone had started making plans on how they were gonna spend the day, Alice had refused. Being apart of the expedition for so long had left her with a slightly pessimistic outlook, something she'd probably picked up from Rodney.

Not that she hoped something would go wrong, but every time they thought they could take a moment to relax something always happened.

But day after day, the countdown got closer until it was the night before and Alice was laying in her bed staring up at the ceiling realising she had nothing to do the next day. She couldn't even remember the last time she had absolutely nothing to do.

On New Athos, there had been so much to do to get the settlement built and then when they did have downtime, Ronon and her had been running ops with the Genii. Then in the three months since the expeditions return, Alice hadn't stopped moving. Trying to restart the R&D's research projects, and analysing all the things the Ancient's had done to the city in their short time here.

The first thing she'd done when she'd gotten into bed that night was turn off her 6am alarm. It was small, but it delayed deciding what she'd have to do. Though she imagined she'd end up waking up around the same time anyway out of habit.

A lot of the teams had set up different activities to do for their day off, like golf, Jumper trips to the mainland or chess tournaments. But she'd declined ever single invite she'd been given.

She tossed in her bed, blowing a piece of hair out of her face. The digital readout of her clock said it was 11pm. She considered pulling out her datapad and tidying up a few loose ends, but she resisted. She heard a buzz, and the screen of her tablet glowed lightly.

Reaching out she picked up the device and saw she had two messages. One was from Rodney, and the other was from Jennifer. She opened Jennifer's first. It was asking her if she had any plans for the day off, as Jen had thought she was going to be on duty, but had been changed at the last minute. Smiling Alice typed a response that she'd be happy to have lunch.

Then she opened Rodney's, it was a short message, but she could tell just from the first couple of words he was pissed. Apparently two of the junior researchers had activated some machine, and he'd been called in to reprimand them. He wanted her to handle them. She was sure it was nothing, she didn't bother replying to him knowing it could wait, and hopefully after today the idea of punishment for the kids would be forgotten. Stretching, she shut down the tablet and dropped it onto the floor.

—-

It was 8am when Alice woke up, she almost jumped out of her bed in a panic thinking that she'd grossly overslept her alarm somehow, when she remembered their day off. She slumped back down on her bed, her heart beating fast against her rib cage. Staring up at the ceiling she slowing drew in a breath. This was the first time she'd slept-in in almost three years, and it felt amazing. Though somehow she still felt tired. Pulling herself up she stripped off and headed for the shower.

Once she'd dried off, she looked at her drawers. They were full of black t-shirts and combat pants - the standard Atlantis uniform. Pushing aside the uniforms she looked for something a little out of the ordinary. However, aside from her gym clothes all she really had was the Athosian clothes Teyla had made her, the Genii uniform she'd been given and a top that Laura Cadmen had given her when she left. It was a light blue, and very different to what she normally wore. It was girly, flowy and perfect. She pulled the top over her head, and pulled on a pair of high waisted black shorts. Then walked back to the mirror to fix her hair. The top had a sweetheart neckline, so she pulled her hair half up, so small ringlets cascaded gently over her collar bones. Her body was too athletic to be considered girly, but compared to her usual get-up she felt extremely feminine.

Then there was a knock on her door. Alice took one last look at herself and ran over to the door. "Coming!" She yelled.

The door opened and before her stood Jennifer, smiling and dressed in a yellow top and denim skirt. "Hi!" She said cheerfully. "Are you ready?"

Alice grabbed her earpiece from the side table and stepped out of the door. "Let's go." They walked to the mess hall, Alice tried to ignore the stares that people gave them as they walked past - mostly from the male officers Alice used to work with. This was the first time they'd probably seen her in something other than her uniform. It made her blush and speed up as they walked down the hall. "So how are you finding Atlantis?"

They both grabbed a tray and started pulling sandwiches onto their plates. Alice also helped herself to two servings of blue jello. "Yeah, it's great. Everyone is so friendly, I'm still just a bit overwhelmed at the size and scope of the place." Her voice dropped lower. "I actually haven't been anywhere other than the infirmary, my quarters and here."

Alice laughed. "Don't worry, I can show you around today, hopefully that will help you feel more at home." They turned to head for a table. "Well that's interesting..."

"Hmm?" Jennifer asked, looking questioningly at Alice's face.

Alice couldn't help but smile as she watched Elizabeth laughing and smiling sat with a man. It looked like they were on a date. Elizabeth was also out of her uniform, in a low cut teal top with her hair done up. She didn't recognise the man. "Come on." She gestured to a table on the balcony. As intrigued as she was about the man, it wouldn't be right to intrude. Elizabeth deserved some privacy to just be herself.

Alice and Jennifer sat down outside, enjoying the sunlight. "I hope no one's been giving you a hard time at all. I know most departments have their own initiation to Atlantis rituals."

Jennifer smiled gently. "No, everyone's lovely."

Alice nodded. "Carson's not exactly the type I suppose. Have you spent much time with people outside of the infirmary?"

"Not really. It's just been so busy, trying to catch up on all the medical reports from the entire SG programme and it seems like someone's constantly getting injured or sick." Jennifer sighed.

"It sounds like this day off was perfectly timed then. I'd love to introduce you-"

"To me!" Lloyd swaggered over and dropped down in a chair beside them. Evan following behind him slower.

"Definitely not." Alice replied quickly. Then pointed to Lloyd. "Jennifer, this charming marine is Lloyd. And this is Major Evan Lorne." Lloyd winked at Jennifer and Evan held out his hand to shake hers.

"Sorry, you'll have to ignore Lloyd here. He's been knocked out one too many times." Evan apologised. "You look great Aly-cat."

"Thanks." Alice smiled. "I was just going to finish up here and give Jen a tour of Atlantis. You're welcome not to join." She said pointedly at Lloyd.

Lloyd held his hands. "Don't worry, I've got a full day planned with Amanda from botany." He wiggled his eyebrows playfully.

"Isn't she in for a treat." Alice stuck out her tongue.

Lloyd leaned in towards Jennifer. "If you ever need to know anything about the goings on of Atlantis, I'm your man. I know about gossip before anyone else." He smiled proudly.

Jennifer laughed uncomfortably. "Thanks. I'm not really the gossip type."

"Alright, you had your fun Lloyd. Won't Amanda be waiting?" Alice shook her head, but a small smile played on her lips. It was hard to dislike Lloyd, no matter how annoying he could be.

Lloyd grinned. "See you around Riley!"

They watched him go. "What about you Evan? Any hot dates?" Alice smirked.

"Only with a paintbrush." His face relaxed. "I'm going to grab a canvas and do some painting." Slowly he stood up. "In fact, the brush calls. It was nice to meet you Jennifer." He dipped his head and waved to Alice. "See you later Aly-cat."

Once he was out of ear shot Jennifer leaned in close over the table. "Aly-cat? Are you guys together?"

Alice laughed. "Evan and I? No way. And hey, i thought you weren't a gossip."

Jennifer leant back in her chair, putting a carrot stick in her mouth. "So is there a Mr. Riley then?"

"No, and there probably won't be for a very long time." Alice wiped her mouth, noticing Jeniffer had finished her meal. She picked up her remaining jello cup and spoon. "Come on, Let's go."

They headed out of the mess, passing Rodney and Carson on the way out. "Have fun fishing you guys!" Alice called out, waving behind her. Carson had been talking about this trip non-stop for the last week, and Rodney had been moaning about it non-stop.

The halls were busy with people flitting about in casual clothes, it was an odd sight and one Alice hadn't ever seen before. She was used to people with their heads down, mumbling hellos as they raced off to some meeting, mission or lab. It was nice to see people happily laughing.

Alice took Jennifer around the common spaces, the smaller ones that weren't included in the Atlantis 101 briefing, and the spots the military personnel had taken over - but despite what people thought was open to all. They were passing by the sparring room when Jennifer paused. "Who's that?"

Alice stopped and took a couple steps back to see John and Ronon facing off, both of them with a bit of material hanging out of their pants like a tail. John also had one hand behind his back. "Well, I'm sure you know John. I mean Colonel Sheppard. The burly one is Ronon Dex, he's originally from this galaxy." They watched as John and Ronon lunged forward, batons in hand and tried to grab each other's tail. Ronon landed a blow on John's cheek before spinning around and ripping out his tail. Alice glanced at Jennifer, her eyes were locked on Ronon's figure. Smirking, she leaned closer to Jennifer. "He's single too."

Jennifer's shocked face turned back to her. "I-uh-no..." she laughed awkwardly.

Alice giggled, throwing her arm around her shoulders. "I'll intro you another time, trust me you don't want to get between those two when they're trying to prove something."

They were heading towards the south pier when Jennifer stopped and held her hand up to her ear. Then she turned to Alice giving her an apologetic look. Alice frowned. "Everything okay?"

"They need a doctor to report back to the infirmary. Someone needs stitches." Jennifer explained. "This shouldn't take long, how about I radio when I'm done?"

"Sure. But if it's Ronon or John, then I say let them bleed out a bit longer." Alice let out a soft laugh.

Jennifer said a quick goodbye then jogged for the nearest transporter. Alice sighed and pivoted on her heels. Teyla had said something about sparring earlier, maybe she'd still be there. So Alice started making her way back to the gym.

She had almost made it there, when she spotted Teyla with another woman up ahead. They were heading away from the gym both dressed in sweatpants and with backpacks over their shoulders. "Teyla!" Alice called out, picking up her pace to catch up.

Teyla turned back smiling at Alice, then the next thing Alice knew she was being thrown down the hallway. She felt herself spinning.

She wasn't sure if she blacked out, but she couldn't figure out how she'd ended up lying on the floor. Every breath she took in made the left side of her ribs hurt, so she kept her breathing shallow.

Opening her eyes she stared at the carnage around her. The hall was dark, except for the repetitive strobe of a red light. She blinked and the objects around her started coming into focus.

She was lying on the floor, twisting her head she noticed she was against the doorway of the gym. The buzzing sound resolved into an alarm blaring from the walls. That's when it struck her, there had been an explosion. That's why she was on the floor, why alarms were blaring and why the walls and floor were a burnt black. The question that raced through her mind was _how the hell someone had managed to get a bomb in the middle of the city._

She heard groans of pain around her. Her mind immediately focused, there would be time to ask all the questions she wanted. Reaching up she gripped the edge of the door frame and pulled herself up. Her head swam, but she kept moving. Alarms were still blaring and she could see people rushing in and crouching down on the ground looking at piles of rubble on the floor.

Alice rubbed her eyes and blinked, that's when she realised it wasn't just rubble on the floor. Scattered around her were bodies, some burnt and others crumbled. There was the distinctive tang of burning flesh in the air. Alice's senses seemed to all click together at once, in a second she had moved over to the closest body. Her fingers searched for a pulse, it was dull and weak, but it was there. "Hey! Over here!" A man in a yellow uniform ran over, kneeling beside her. "I've got a pulse, but it's weak." She reported.

"Mendez! Let's get him out of here." The medic yelled to another man in a yellow uniform.

Alice moved back as the medics loaded the body onto a stretcher. The man stayed kneeling next to her though . His hands came up to grip her head. "I'm fine." She pushed him off and headed for the next body.

There was blood on the floor, coming from the person's abdomen. "Teyla!" Alice shrieked as she recognised her friend's face. Her fingers flew out to find her pulse, relief flooded through her as she felt a steady beat. "Help! Someone."

"Alice!" Carson's voice sounded next to her. "Oh my god, Teyla. Bring a stretcher!" He called over his shoulder. Alice moved back to allow Carson to check over Teyla. "Alice, are you okay? You're bleeding."

Alice tilted her head confused. She hadn't noticed any blood, running her hands over herself. But looking down at her hands she didn't see any blood. Then suddenly a drip of blood appeared on her palm, lifting her hand up she felt a warm, sticky wet patch on her head.

Teyla's bag was lying open next to her, Alice grabbed out her friends towel and pressed it to her head. Wincing as it made contact with her wound. "I'm fine. Focus on the others."

Teyla was placed onto a gurney and led out of the hallway. Carson's name was being called. "Get yourself to the infirmary now!" He ordered, before running back to where a medic was calling him.

Alice stood up and headed for the next body. Her wound seemed superficial, she doubted if it would even require stitches. There were more seriously hurt people that needed attention. The next body she approached was badly burnt, Alice held her breath as she knelt down placing her fingers on the person's neck. But this time there was nothing. Her chest constricted painfully, her breath coming in shallow gasps. She flinched her hand away from the body, it was so burnt she couldn't even tell who it was. A medic came running over to her. Alice just shook her head.

"Riles!"

Alice shakily got to her feet, her throat constricted as she looked as the body below her. "He's dead." Was all she could manage.

"There's nothing you can do. Come on, you need to get to the infirmary." He wrapped his arms around her and started leading her towards the end of the hall.

But Alice shook him off. "I'm fine." John stopped and looked directly in her eyes. She held his gaze. "Really."

He seemed reluctant, but he nodded. "Alright. Help me get everyone to the infirmary."

—-

Once they'd managed to get all the bodies out of the hallway, John had insisted she get checked over. Despite her protests.

The medic shone a torch in and out of Alice's eyes. "I told you I'm fine." She muttered for what felt like the hundredth time.

"I know, but you still might be in shock. There are often delayed-"

Alice rolled her eyes. "I know. I know. But don't you think there are more serious injuries you should be looking at." She gave her best challenging face.

The medic sighed and dropped the pen light back into his pocket. "Fine, but if you have any-"

Alice popped down from the bed. "Don't worry, I'll come back straight away." She hesitated at the door, back to her left was the door to the operating theatre. Teyla was in there at the moment, apparently the chunk of metal had done quite a bit of damage and she'd lost a lot of blood. But there wasn't anything Alice could do here, she'd only get in the way. So, she headed out the door and towards Rodney's lab.

Every step made her body ache, though she knew she hadn't cracked or broken any ribs, her chest still felt like it had taken quite a beating. Her chest felt heavy, and overall she was a bit lightheaded, but nothing unusual given she'd just been in an explosion. And if she'd mentioned it to John or the medic they would have probably restricted her to bed rest for a bruise.

She was sure there was going to be a rainbow of colors marring her skin when she finally looked. But she'd suffered worse.

"Long story short, it creates explosive tumours." Rodney was standing up in front of John and Ronon. A grim expression on his face.

"Did you say explosive tumours?" Alice was sure she had misheard him. The boys turned to watch her enter.

John eyed her up and down. "Are you sure you should be moving about?"

Alice dragged over a stool and carefully hoisted herself onto it, wincing slightly as she stretched her chest. "Just a bit bruised, nothing serious."

John seemed ready to argue with her. But, thought better of it and turned back to Rodney. "So, wait, this guy Watson ..."

"... has almost definitely been exposed, yes. Look, we need to find him before that tumour ignites, which could be any minute now." Rodney's expression darkened.

John and Ronon exchanged a panicked glance and ran out of the room. Alice still felt a bit lost. "Wait. Not our Watson, right?" Rodney didn't reply, but his expression told Alice everything. Watson was a junior member of their team, he hadn't been with them for more than a couple of months. "We have to be able to do something."

Rodney didn't look at her, instead he tapped his radio. "Doctor Watson. Doctor James Watson. Report your whereabouts immediately." It was only then Alice realised she didn't have her earpiece anymore. It must have dislodged in the explosion. Anxiously, she fidgeted as Rodney listened to someone talking on the other end. Rodney's eyes suddenly widened. "He's in the O.R. right now? I need you to get Beckett back on his radio." Alice jumped down from her stool, her heart rate increasing. "Carson, the man you are working on right now has been infected with an explosive tumour. We think it's what killed Hewston and caused the explosion."

Glancing around the lab, Alice looked for a radio or spare earpiece. Luckily, their emergency kit was still fully stocked. She ripped the radio out of the pack and switched the channel to the designated military one. "John, come in."

"I hear you Riles. What's going on?" John answered immediately.

"Watson, he's in the OR right now. Rodney's on the line to Carson."

"Okay, the bomb squad is on it's way now." John's tone was dark.

Alice started chewing on her lip, she tapped Rodney's shoulder. "Bomb squad is on it's way."

Rodney held up his thumb. "It _is_ possible, Carson. Look, you need to get you and your team out of there. Sheppard has an ordnance disposal crew on the way." He paused, as Carson must have been arguing back. " _He_ doesn't have to move. _You_ do."

John and Ronon came running back into the lab. "He's used his authorisation code to seal off the whole level. We can't get to him."

Alice exchanged a fearful look with Rodney. "Carson, you cannot seriously be considering operating on this guy." Rodney shrieked. "There is no way to know for sure. Look, Hewston was infected at the same time that Watson was and her tumour's already exploded."

"Get him out of there!" Alice pleaded. Her chest ached as her heart started thudding against her rib cage.

"OK, look, this is all very brave and all, but ..." Rodney started saying.

John tapped his earpiece impatiently. "... what if the explosion causes structural damage? What if the tower comes down with everyone in it?"

"Exactly." Rodney grinned at John. Alice hated being left out of the conversation. She knew Carson though, nothing they said would convince him to leave Watson to die. "The man is already dead!" Rodney said frantically.

John started pacing. "Carson, I can't order you to stand down, but ..." But he was cut off before he could finish.

"Control room." Alice clicked her fingers. "We might be able to override his codes from there."

"Let's go!" John took off eagerly, Alice started jogging but stopped after only a few steps. Her body doubled over in pain, her breath coming in short gasps as she moaned in pain. "Riles!"

She waved him off. "Just give me a sec." Closing her eyes she drew in a few deep breaths, the pain in her chest felt like someone had stabbed her with a hot iron. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to keep moving. Carson's life depended on it. "Keep moving." She said hoarsely.

They started moving again, this time slower to the transporter. Rodney and John took the steps two at a time when they reached the control room. Alice followed behind slower, still trying to lower her heart rate. Rodney was already at the main station when Alice got there. "Colonel, Rodney. I need an update."

Rodney glanced between the laptop and Elizabeth. Alice scooted around the panel. "Go, I've got this."

Rodney moved aside and followed John into Elizabeth's office. Alice's fingers skittered over the keyboard, time was against them. Her chest still throbbed, but she used the pain as motivation to get this done. This patch could take her up to 30 minutes to breakthrough, but she knew they might only have seconds left.

She activated the main comms to come through the control room speakers. She didn't want to miss anything now. The programme slowly chipped away at the encryption code, but it was too slow.

"Colonel Sheppard. I've extracted the tumour ..." Carson's voice was tense. "... and I'm opening up the O.R. level."

Alice pulled her fingers back from the keys. As the OR level unlocked. John, Elizabeth and Rodney ran across the gantry. John had his hand on his ear. "He's on his way. Sit tight."

"Dammit. Tell him I'll meet him halfway." Carson huffed.

"Just stay put, Doc." John ordered, his voice strained.

"The sooner I get this thing out of my sight, the better." Swallowing nervously, they waited in silence. They all knew better than to question Carson, and the more they delayed him the higher the chances were of the tumour exploding. Alice's leg bounced up and down, her eyes fixed on the screen, waiting to hear Carson's voice. "We just made the hand-off."

Alice's lips were pulling up into a grin, when her expression changed to one of pure horror. Alarms suddenly blared and bright red warnings flashed on her screen. _Explosion detected, structural damage detected._

Her heart dropped to the floor, wide-eyed, her eyes flew up to meet John's. Both of them stared at each other in a terrified silence. "Carson?" Alice's voice came out as a tiny squeak. But there was only static. Her hands started to tremble, but she moved them across the keyboard bringing up the internal sensors for the OR level. Her eyes scoured the screen for any white dots that would indicate life signs. "I'm reading no life signs."

Alice stood on at the base of the stairs, she was wearing a dress, a simple black one. It was itchy and made her feel exposed. She'd borrowed it from Jennifer, it didn't quite fit right, but she didn't have anything appropriate for this duty.

In front of the gate was Carson's coffin, the Scottish flag draped over it. Even staring at the coffin, Alice couldn't bring herself to believe he was gone, it just didn't seem possible.

"There wasn't a person alive who was more caring or a better friend than Carson Beckett. It has been and will always have been an honour to be his friend." Rodney's voice caught in his throat. But he kept a strong expression on his face, he touched the coffin gently and then walked towards Alice directly behind the coffin, along with John, Ronon, Teyla, Elizabeth and Evan.

As he joined her and the others, Elizabeth stepped forward over to the coffin, then turned to face the gathering of the Atlantis personnel. "We've said goodbye to a lot of friends today. Our mission is a dangerous one. We lose people - a fact we're all painfully aware of. But Carson was … " Her voice trailed off, her eyes filled with grief. Alice drew in a deep breath, trying to keep control of her emotions. She felt John glance over at her, then she felt his fingers reaching out to touch hers. Without hesitating, she stretched out her fingers to connect them. "I can't remember anyone coming to me with a complaint against him - ever. He was a kind soul. He was ... he was a healer. And he will be very deeply missed. George Fabricius said, 'Death comes to us all, but great achievements, they build a monument which shall endure until the sun grows cold.'" Elizabeth paused as her voice started to break. "Every single life Carson saved is a monument to him. And that gives me great comfort." They all stood in silence, then Elizabeth nodded to the Control Room.

Bagpipes started playing and the gate started dialling. Alice, along with John, Rodney, Ronon, Evan and Radek walked towards the coffin. John and Rodney took up their positions at the front of the coffin. Alice was directly behind him, across from Radek. Then on John's signal they all bent down and lifted the coffin, and walked forward into the gate. She winced slightly, as she took on the weight of the coffin. Her ribs were still bruised, but nothing was going to stop her from doing this. She owed it to Carson.

They kept a slow pace as one by one they stepped into the event horizon. Alice felt her legs trembling, but she kept her eyes on John's back. Even if he didn't know it, right now he was keeping her grounded. She focused on the color of his dress blues, the way the jacket fell on his broad shoulders. She didn't think about the clang of their steps on the metal, or the the fact the bagpipes had been replaced with a mournful trumpet. She just kept her eyes on John as if he was the only thing keeping her tethered to the ground.

They made it to the bottom of the ramp and lifted the coffin onto the stand. General O'Neill and Landry, were both stood below the control room, in their dress blues surrounded by what looked like the entire SGC - both military and civilian. Alice finally let go of the coffin and turned away taking three steps, then pivoted back to look at Carson. The trumpet stopped and General O'Neill raised his arm to a salute. The military personnel did the same.

Alice stayed still frozen on the spot. For the rest of the procession she felt like she was watching someone else life, through someone else's eyes. She never thought she'd be here for Carson.

She'd pictured the deaths of everyone on her team, including her own. They put their lives on the line everyday, and they'd come close on more than one occasion. But Carson was the one who put them back together, even when it all seemed hopeless.

Before she knew it, the coffin was escorted off by the Air Force honour squad, Rodney followed alongside them. He was going to be the one to deliver the news and the body to Carson's family.

Alice stayed put, until the only ones left in the room were Evan, Ronon, Radek and her. John must have gone with the two Generals. "Come on, let's get a drink." Evan started heading for the mess.

Alice shared a look with Ronon then followed after him.

Evan grabbed a table and Alice slipped behind the counter to grab out a case of beers. Somethings would never change at the SGC.

There were a couple of airmen sat near the counter, but they just politely bowed there heads when Alice passed them.

Dropping the cans down on the table, they each took one out and Alice held hers up. "To Carson."

"To the Doc" Evan lifted up his can.

Ronon and Radek both joined in echoing their statements. Then they all took a sip. A solemn silence took hold of the room. Until Evan sniggered to himself.

Everyone stopped and glanced over to him. Looking over at him to see if he was suffering a mental break. But he just continued sniggering, bringing his hand up to cover his mouth. "Do you remember when Lloyd told the Doc about those sheep-like creatures on MX4-P36?"

Alice suddenly knew why he was laughing. It felt completely inappropriate, but she broke into a grin. "You mean the one's Carson begged Elizabeth for him to go see..."

Evan's eyes had started watering, as he let out a sharp bark of laughter. Radek and Ronon both had small smiles on their faces. "I heard he'd tried to pet one." Radek added.

"Who would have known they were poisonous..." Evan said trying to catch his breath. "I've never seen a hand swell like that."

Alice felt her shoulders relax as they started sharing their favourite stories about Carson. Most of Ronon's involved him misunderstanding Carson's Scottish accent. It was around midnight, when John walked in to join them. "This isn't quite what I expected to see."

Alice let out a small laugh. "We were just sharing some of our favourite memories with Carson." She lifted her watch. "But it's pretty late." Stretching she pushed her chair back and stood up. She said a quick goodnight to the others and gave Evan's shoulder a squeeze. "Thanks."

"I'm going to head to bed as well. Remember kids, we're on the first inter-galactic space bridge trip out of here in the morning." But his joke fell flat on the table. "Right...goodnight." He stuffed his hands into his pants pockets and followed Alice out the door. "How are you?" He asked her tentatively.

She took in a deep breath. "I'm really going to miss him. But Carson was always about living to the fullest. I don't think he would have wanted us crying over him."

"I know what you mean." John said plainly. They slowly approached the door to the guest quarters that had been assigned to Alice. "If you ever need to talk...or..." he started awkwardly.

Alice let out a soft laugh and reached out to touch John's arm. "It's been a pretty rough year hasn't it?" The moment her skin touched John's she felt a small spark of electricity shoot between them. She suddenly had the urge to reach out and close the gap between them.

John swallowed and looked down the corridor behind them. "If today was it, would you have any regrets?"

As he turned back around to face her their eyes locked and she found herself drawing in towards him. The desire to feel loved, comforted, even if it would just be for a night, was overwhelming. "Yes. One massive one." Her voice was low, as she watched his eyes drop down towards her lips. "What about you?" It felt like they were magnets being drawn together, neither of them consciously moving but their bodies seemed to be getting closer and closer.

"If the world was ending…I'd regret never having done this again." He closed the gap between them. His hand cradling the back of her head as his lips pressed into hers.

Alice couldn't think, couldn't focus on anything other than the man kissing her. Frantically, she reached for the door handle. Twisting it down, she grabbed John's collar and pulled him into the room with her. He kicked the door behind them, as they started tugging and pulling on each other's clothes.

Her heart pounded in against her chest, her breathing became laboured and she shivered as she looked up into his deep hazel eyes. She didn't want to think about anything happening outside her room, it was as though nothing mattered except for them.

Neither of them spoke again. Instead they gave into the feeling of being together. Of being alive.


	40. Chapter 40

**A/N I'm so sorry I never meant to put this story on a hiatus, but with a lot of life stress I found i lacked the motivation and time to give this story the time it needed.  
**

 **But things are finally starting to calm down, and i've managed to start editing the next few chapters. So there shouldn't be another big break for a while (I hope).**

 **Thanks again to everyone who has read, reviewed and favourited this story. You motivate me so much to keep working on this. So I hope you enjoy the next chapter.**

Alice laid closely beside John, she could feel his breath softly tickling the back of her neck as he slept.

It was early, and there wasn't long left before they'd have to get up and face reality again. Her fingers tightly gripped the edge of the blanket. If it had been anyone else laying beside her, she would have been long gone. But it wasn't just anyone, it was John.

After months of trying to accept what happened between them, and sort out her own feelings, she knew now that she never wanted to let him go again. But she couldn't say for sure he felt the same way.

Her eyes glanced around the dark room, silently chastising herself. This wasn't the time to be thinking about dating. Her family was hurting, and they were going to need as much support as possible.

As softly as she could, she turned so she was facing John. His face was relaxed and peaceful, but she knew that wouldn't last. When he opened his eyes, his mask would slip back into place and he'd once again be Colonel Sheppard, commander of Atlantis. The strong and dependable leader everyone looked up to, and the one they'd rely on to make them laugh and forget the pain they were in. The one who was afraid to let people see his true vulnerabilities.

But in the silent, dark room, alone with her, he could just be John. No expectations. No responsibilities. Nothing but them.

Without realising she must have drifted back to sleep, as the next thing she was aware of was John's hand running up and down her arm. "I wish I could let you sleep more, but it's time to get up."

Alice yawned, but nodded. Blinking, she sat up and swung her legs over the edge of the bed. The cold air sending goosebumps up her spine. Behind her she could hear John getting dressed.

They were ready in minutes, years of strict military repetition had made them quick and efficient. "I'll…uh see you at the jumper." He opened the door and let Alice step out first.

"I'll be there." She gave him a small smile, her brain still slow with sleep.

She started walking down the hallway, it was early so there was hardly anyone around. Alice headed straight for the mess hall, pouring herself a cup of coffee, and another for John.

She took a sip, it was still hot and scorched her tongue slightly. But its calming effect dulled the pain almost immediately.

Within moments of the caffeine entering her system, her brain started to fire up and she felt better than she had in days. Her watched beeped. 5 minutes until report time.

Grabbing the two cups she walked quickly to the hanger. Her thoughts turned to Rodney. None of them had seen him since he left to return Carson's body to his family in Scotland. Rodney had requested to explain -as much as the air force would allow him – to Carson's mother in person.

Alice had been lucky never to have been assigned to give a death notification. But from the stories she'd heard, it wasn't pleasant…

The hanger was full of scientists admiring their puddle jumper and chatting animatedly.

This wasn't surprising, but what did surprise her, was Rodney. He was lent casually against the rear bulkhead soaking up the attention, as the scientist's listened to him explain what it was like to _fly this baby._

Over the last few years, all of them had gone through a lot together. They'd seen each other broken, beaten and occasionally dying. After all that she thought she had some expectation of how Rodney would be handline this, but this definitely wasn't it.

Slipping past Rodney's audience, she walked up the ramp into the Jumper. Radek was muttering to himself in Czech as he typed on his laptop. She didn't need to know Czech to know he was complaining about Rodney.

John was sat behind the main controls, prepping for launch. Ronon was sat in the chair behind him, twirling his gun in his hand. Alice took the co-pilot's seat, slipping the coffee on the panel in front of John.

He shot her a grateful look as he reached out to grab the steaming cup. Taking her own seat across from him, she started loading up the macro to take them back through the gate to Midway. Apart from Rodney, they all worked quietly to prepare themselves for the albeit short journey home.

A few minutes later Evan arrived dragging Rodney in behind him and closed the rear hatch. John swung his head around looking at each of them in turn. "Alright. Everyone strap in." He hit the comms panel. "General we are go for launch."

Walter clicked a few buttons then acknowledged. "Dialling Midway now."

The jumper rose gently and lowered down into the gateroom. A few seconds later they were in the vacuum between two galaxies.

Alice loaded up the next macro. "We're good."

John's hand reached out and dialled Atlantis.

"Welcome back." Elizabeth's voice greeted them over the radio, with a overly cheery tone injected into it.

"Good to be back." John replied.

The roof opened above them and within a few minutes they had touched down and everyone stood to grab their gear.

John headed straight out, probably to debrief Elizabeth, followed closely by Evan. Ronon was next, throwing his bag onto his bag and striding out towards the transporter. Rodney and Radek kept their heads down in their tablets, busying themselves with endless scrolls of ancient text as they headed towards the R&D section. Leaving Alice by herself.

Shouldering her bag, she decided to head back to her room and then maybe she'd go and find Teyla.

Even though they'd only been gone just over 24 hours the city felt different. It was like the life had been sucked out of the city.

The reality of Carson's death still hung over the city like a dark cloud.

Everyone seemed to move slower, some people seemed to have perpetually red eyes from crying. A few had a new sense of determination in their eyes, whilst others just looked terrified. Carson's death reminded everyone of the reality of their mission, that they might never go home and it wasn't just the SG teams that were taking risks.

Alice tried to avoid eye contact as she walked through the city back to her quarters.

Once she was back in the familiar safety of her room she let out a heavy sigh. It felt strange to be back in her room and that in a few days things would slowly start going back to normal. And before she knew it, the city would move on. Resentment bubbled within her at the thought of it.

This wasn't the first time she'd dealt with grief. It was completely normal to feel guilty and angry. So, she closed her eyes and took in a deep breath. Just because people move on, it doesn't mean they forget. She repeated it to herself like a mantra.

Once she felt more in control, she opened her eyes and starting unpacking. Before heading out to see Teyla, she showered and changed.

The door to the infirmary stood open before her. She had to stop and take a moment, before she could step through it. Reminding herself that she would never again see the beaming smile of her favourite doctor.

The infirmary was still quite full with victims from the blast. Alice headed straight for Teyla. "Alice. It's good to see you." Teyla beamed at her. "I wish I could accompanied you."

Alice dragged a stool over and returned the smile. "I know, but Carson never would have let you. How are you feeling?"

Teyla sighed and slumped back. "Ready to get out of here."

"Well, I'm afraid there isn't anything I can do about that."

"How are the rest of the team?"

"They're… they're strong. They'll get through it, it might just take some time." Her eyes dropped down to her fidgeting hands. "So, what's been happening here?"

"Elizabeth has limited all off-world missions, and until everyone has cleared a mandatory psych eval gate activity is limited to emergency only."

"Makes sense. Carson was a big part of the community, though it'll be tough to find someone who hasn't been slightly compromised due to his death."

"I believe you are right. At least that gives me time to get back into shape."

Alice let out a small laugh. "Well, Don't strain yourself, Jen looks like she has enough on her plate."

She hadn't seen her friend, but she knew Elizabeth had made her interim head of medical. Something, she knew her friend would find intimidating and overwhelming.

"I'll leave you to rest. I'll come by again tomorrow."

But before she could go, Teyla reached out and grabbed her hand. Her eyes narrowed as they scanned her face. "Are you alright? Something seems different."

"You mean besides losing Carson…" Alice wasn't sure how but she felt like Teyla knew about her and John. Like something had changed. But now didn't feel like the time to bring it up. "I'm fine Teyla, really."

Teyla let her hand go. "Thank you for coming by. I really do appreciate it."

—

The next week went past quickly. Rodney had turned into a slave driver, giving her and the other team leaders impossible deadlines, which meant Alice had barely left the lab. She hadn't slept properly in days and she'd resorted to napping at her desk, in order to meet his deadlines.

It did mean that she'd barely had a moment to think about her grief, let alone anything else. She was pretty certain John had stopped by once or twice but Alice was struggling to remember.

"I think I found it." Rodney bounced in his chair.

Alice jumped, her coffee spilling over her hand and the floor. "What!"

"The Ancients geothermal drilling platform." He said smugly, crossing his arms.

It took a moment for her brain to catch up with what he'd said. "Drilling platform." She tasted the words as they came out of her mouth. Finally they clicked into place. "Really? I thought they abandoned the project?" They'd discovered some logs and data in the database months ago, but had decided to shelve it for another day as the Ancient scientist had deemed the project in laymen's terms 'not worth the effort'. Rodney must have picked it up as another side project.

"Maybe, but that doesn't mean anything. They abandoned this whole city." He gestured to the room around him.

Alice shrugged, he did have a point there. "If you need any help-"

Rodney was already on his feet heading towards the door. "Clear your afternoon!"

Alice groaned, pushing her chair back and going in search of a towel to clean up the coffee now starting to dry on her skin.

When Rodney asked her to join, or more accurately assigned her to, the research team to investigate the drilling platform – which she still had no idea how he'd managed to convince Elizabeth to go for – she didn't imagine herself being crammed into a jumper with John, the rest of her team and what felt like half the R&D team, for hours upon end.

The Jumper, piloted by John, headed deep into the ocean towards the last known location of Rodney's drilling platform.

Alice was sat in the back of the jumper, flicking through pages of Ancient script on her datapad. She'd downloaded the logs they'd found before on the project, hoping to catch up to the others on what the Ancients had been doing down here, and where the project had gone wrong. But she hadn't expected for it to have taken them this long. And from the irritated tapping and groans from the others around her, she could tell she wasn't the only one.

Teyla stood up from the bench across from her and poked her head into the cockpit. "Um ... shotgun ... is it?"

"Oh, come on." Rodney groaned exasperatedly. "I don't know why I have to do this." Then a few seconds later he stormed into the rear compartment slumping down into Teyla's vacated space. "What?" He snapped at Radek, who was sat beside Alice.

"Nobody said anything." Radek sighed.

"You don't _have_ to, do you? Look, it's not _my_ fault things are hard to find on the bottom of the ocean."

Alice knew she'd regret getting involved but she couldn't help it. "Rodney, you said you knew where it was."

"I _said_ I knew its last known location. It is a _mobile_ drilling station, remember? Obviously that's gonna take a few hours."

"If we don't find it soon, this is gonna be _your_ last known location." Ronon's threat drifted in from the cockpit.

"Oh, zing!" was the best response Rodney could fire back.

John cleared his throat. "OK, kids. Do I have to pull this thing over? It's hard enough being in this damned thing for hours without listening to you guys."

Graydon, one of the R&D scientists held up a finger nervously. "Actually, Doctor McKay has managed to narrow the search field to a remarkably small area."

"Hmm, finally!" A smug smile spread on Rodney's face. "The voice of reason! Thank you, Doctor ... um ..." His face went blank.

"Graydon."

"Yes, yes, of course." He smiled insincerely at Graydon. "Well, welcome to the team."

Alice rolled her eyes, sometimes she found it hard to believe Rodney was in charge of the entire department.

"I've actually been here eight months..."

"Oh. It's been that long, has it?" Rodney let out an awkward laugh. "Time certainly flies."

"Of course, not sitting in a Jumper looking for a needle in a haystack." Radek added.

Rodney's demeanour stiffened again. "You know what? Shut up!"

"You know what? _You_ shut up, OK?" Ronon yelled back.

"Hey! I don't hear Grayson complaining!"

"Uh, it's Graydon, with a 'd'."

"What? You sure?" Rodney's brow scrunched up.

"It's my name."

"No-no-no, 'cause I could have sworn that the guy I wanted from your department was called Grayson, 'cause I remember thinking Dick Grayson, Bruce Wayne's ward."

"Well, it's Graydon."

"Oh. Perhaps that means I hired the wrong guy."

Alice closed her eyes and focused on the creaking of the Jumper against the pressure of the ocean.

"OK, kids, we're here." John yelled.

Everyone stood up at once, trying to cram into the cockpit to get a look at the platform. Alice stayed in her seat. She could just about hear John's voice as they searched for a landing dock.

—-

Less then an hour later Alice was flat on her back underneath what she assumed was the main control interface of the station.

All around her scientists babbled excitedly as systems started coming alive. It reminded her of those first few hours on Atlantis when they'd first stepped through the gate. It felt like an entire lifetime ago now. She tried not to think of all the faces they'd lost since then.

She turned her head to the side as a few sparks flew out of the cords Alice had just connected. "Try it now." She yelled out to Radek.

"We're online!" He cheered.

Hauling herself up off the ground she joined Radek and analysed the panel. Gently she reached out and pressed down on the top left crystal. It was an educated guess, but after years of working with Ancient tech it didn't seem like too much of a gamble. The interface started glowing and the screen flickered to life.

"Now we're talking."

As far as Alice could tell from her readings, the platform seemed more or less intact with only a couple of small red flags.

Like most Ancient equipment though there wasn't exactly a manual lying about they could use to get everything up and running. And based on their past experiences taking it slow was usually for the best, especially if they wanted to leave here with all their limbs attached.

But there was always a calm before the storm. Just like three years ago when they'd stepped into the city with wide eyes, everything wasn't as it seemed.

This time it was a single radio transmission that made the hairs on the back of Alice's neck stand straight up.

"This is Sheppard. Everyone drop what you're doing; get back to the Control Room immediately!"

—-

Alice listened, her arms crossed over her chest as Rodney paced back and forth. "We did a complete life signs scan. It's the first thing we did when we stepped aboard this station. Look, I promise you, there is nobody here but us." Rodney said in the tone he always used when he felt someone was questioning his ability.

Teyla gave him a diplomatic look. "I know, Rodney, but I am sensing it even closer now."

"Well, maybe it's the pressure. It's been known to do things to the mind."

John gestured to the panels. "Just humour me and check again."

Rodney waved his hand at Alice. Turning she activated the internal life signs scanner. "12 active signals detected. Same as before."

"There." Rodney said. "All of these life signs have been accounted for." He turns to John. "Humoured?"

But no one looked reassured.

"Wraith don't show up on life signs detectors if they're hibernating." Elizabeth suggested.

All diplomacy had left Teyla. "I know what I am sensing."

"There is no Wraith here! I'm telling you!" Rodney was losing his patience.

Ronon exchanged a glance with Alice. Both of them were thinking the same thing. Teyla had never been wrong before. "Has your sense ever been wrong?"

"Never. And I cannot shake this feeling." She held her head up and her hands flexed against her gun.

"I trust her." Ronon said.

Rodney pointed to the display. "As opposed to irrefutable fact?"

"These systems have been offline for a long time... For all we know the calibration could be completely off." Alice said, her eyes glancing over to the doorway, as though a wraith was suddenly going to appear.

"There is a way for me to be sure. If I can reach out with my mind and establish a link ..."

"Whoa. That's a little reckless, don't you think?" John interrupted before Teyla could finish.

"If there is no Wraith, then there will be no mind for me to link with, and therefore no risk. But if there _is_ a Wraith nearby ..."

"... we need to know." Elizabeth finished.

John didn't look happy about it. But there wasn't much choice. "Okay. Rodney, Riles you two stay here. Do what you can to get comms online, i'd feel a lot better if we could radio for backup."

Alice and Rodney exchanged a quick look before turning back to their consoles as the rest of the team and Elizabeth headed out of the room.

It was hard to concentrate when Alice knew Teyla was attempting to reach out and connect with a Wraith mind.

They still knew very little about the effect this connection could have, or if the more she opened her mind the greater her risk was.

"We're all clear." The three words sent a warm relief through Alice.

Now she'd be able to focus.

—-

It couldn't have been more than an hour before John radioed in again. "Rodney. What's going on?"

Rodney immediately turned to Alice, she just shrugged in response. "What do you mean, what's going on?"

"We just lost the lights." John said.

"What?" Rodney stood up and rushed over to Alice's console. Alice lifted her hands up and stepped back. "Huh. You're right."

"Yes, we can see that!" Elizabeth sounded frustrated.

"We just lost power to forty percent of the station. Sensors are currently offline. Zelenka, what are you doing?" Rodney said accusingly.

"Uh, what do you mean, what am I doing?" Radek ignored Rodney's tone.

"Have you lost power where you are?"

"No. Have you?"

"No."

" _We_ have." John snapped. "I wanna know what's going on."

"This station _has_ been lying idle down here for a few millennia. We're bound to blow a few fuses. Look, I'll have power back online in a minute. Just hang tight." Rodney tapped quickly on the keys.

Alice watched him work, trying to follow his actions.

"Rodney, we've lost contact with Ronon and Teyla. You know their position?"

Alice turned away to her laptop, looking at the sensor data. But the sensors were no longer relaying data. "Negative. Internal sensors are out too."

"I have determined the location where the power went down. It's an auxiliary control area, search grid six. It's the deck that Ronon and Teyla were exploring." Rodney said.

"We'll meet you there."

"OK." He looked at one of the scientists. "Davidson."

"It's, uh, Dickenson, sir." The man corrected awkwardly.

"Yeah, well, I was in the ballpark. Just give me a break here. Look, get back to the Jumper - see if you can use its sensors to determine the location of our people within the drilling platform."

"I'm coming with you." Alice picked her P90 off a set of containers and checked its load. Then headed for the door.

"After you…" Rodney followed behind her, yelling as he went. "Gray _DON_ , you go with him."

Once they got closer to the auxiliary control room all the lights shut down. Alice switched on the torch of her gun, and cautiously moved forward. Rodney followed behind, consciously placing her directly in front of him.

They turned down a few corridors, Rodney silently guiding her with light taps on her shoulders. The flashlight only lit a couple of meters in front of them. Alice froze as she heard footsteps, spinning around she shon her torch down a corridor next to them. A light flickered then, she saw John and Elizabeth walking towards them. She lowered her gun and straightened up.

"There you are." Rodney sighed, his voice shaking slightly.

Alice stayed where she was, allowing John to take the lead and Elizabeth and Rodney to stay between them. They couldn't have taken more than a few steps before several loud pops reverberated through the air.

"Weapons fire. Definitely ours." Alice muttered.

"Nine mil. This way." John raised his gun and started moving quickly.

They ran down one corridor to the next. John kept trying to raise Ronon and Teyla on the radio. But with no response. They ran slightly faster but stopped when Alice saw a dark heap on the floor ahead groaning. It was Ronon.

Whilst the others rushed forward, Alice stayed standing. Anything that could take Ronon down was a concern to her. But the corridors were lifeless.

"Are you alright?" Elizabeth asked.

"No!" Though it sounded more like it was his pride that was wounded.

"Did you see who attacked you?"

"Yeah, it was Teyla." He groaned.

Alice turned to stare at him. But Rodney's mouth opened before hers. "What?! Why?"

Ronon staggered to his feet and brushed off his chest. Confident he was injured Elizabeth took a step back and gave her orders. "OK, until we know what's going on, I'd like everyone in one place."

John muttered in agreement and together they started heading back towards the control room. The urge to shoot off on her own to find Teyla was hard to fight. But she had no idea what she'd be up against or what was happening. That and John would probably shoot her if she took off on her own again.

"This is Zelenka. Someone has just activated emergency forcefields throughout the station."

John held up his fist to stop their progress. "Can you make it back to the Control Room?" He asked Rodney.

"Yes, I think so."

"Do it." He ordered.

"That doesn't make any sense. What's she doing?" Rodney asked no one in particular.

Alice recognised the look on John's face. He was making a plan. "You and Elizabeth go back to the Control Room. Ronon, Riles and I are gonna check up on Teyla." She had to say it surprised her that John had included her.. But it wasn't like there was much choice. Ronon and her were the only trained soldiers other than John and Teyla on the station.

"Be careful." Elizabeth nodded.

Ronon took the lead, holding his blaster out in front of him, he was determined not to let Teyla get the best of him twice. Alice grabbed her side arm from her thigh holster and passed it to a reluctant looking Elizabeth. "Just in case."

Elizabeth nodded, and headed back in the direction her and Rodney had just come from.

That left Alice in step with John. Despite their situation, she wanted to stop and ask him what he felt for her, if they could try again. But once again it wasn't appropriate. And she certainly didn't want an audience to what could be the most heartbreaking rejection of her life.

Silently they retraced their steps back to where they'd found Ronon and then picked up their pace to the aux control room.

As the doorway approached, John made a series of gestures. Covering their backs, Alice let John and Ronon enter first, their guns aimed at Teyla's centre mass.

She seemed dazed, but Alice's eyes immediately went to the pistol in her hands. "Drop it." John's voice ordered.

Stunned, Teyla dropped it to the floor. "John." She slumped against the control panel.

Alice stepped forward tentatively, but A small glance from John stopped her. "What the hell's going on?"

"I do not know."

—

"This is Sheppard. We've got Teyla."

Alice and Ronon walked cautiously either side of Teyla, ready to catch her if she stumbled. But other than being slightly ashamed and embarrassed, nothing seemed to be wrong with the Athosian.

"And?" Elizabeth pressed for a further report.

"And nothin'. She has no memory of anything that happened the last hour. We're on our way to Crew Quarters." He cast a look over his shoulder at them, his eyes lingering on Teyla, whose head hung down.

"I'll meet you there."

The crew quarters were basic, but incredibly functional. They reminded her of the dorm rooms in the SGC. There were six bunks in the room, two sets on each wall, with a bench running down the middle of the room. Teyla lowered herself down on the bench, she'd not said anything since they'd found her. John and Ronon stood opposite her, both of them were tense. Alice took a seat beside Teyla, knowing she probably felt like a prisoner.

Her eyes were focused on the floor as her hands constantly rubbed and fidgeted against each other. Elizabeth walked in and Teyla immediately rose up. "Elizabeth, I'm so sorry."

But Elizabeth held up her hand to stop her. "Don't worry about that. How are you feeling now?"

"I'm fine, but to hear of the damage I caused and yet to have no memory of my actions ..."

"Just tell us what you _do_ remember."

Teyla took in a small breath. "I was attempting to seek out the Wraith presence with my mind, and then ..."

"There _is_ a Wraith?"

Alice's eyes darted up to meet John's, and her fingers moved onto her gun.

"The most powerful mind I have ever encountered." She sat down again. "I tried to shut her out..."

" _Her_?" John asked.

"Yes. I believe this Wraith is a Queen."

"I _hate_ Queens." His face turned into a grimace.

"In that brief moment, I sensed great power; the experiences of many centuries; hunger ... and then nothing. My next memory is of Colonel Sheppard and Ronon aiming their weapons towards me." She explained.

Elizabeth seemed to consider her reply for a moment. "So there _is_ a Wraith aboard the drilling platform."

"If that were the case, why'd she use Teyla to do all that damage." Alice said, looking between them.

"...and why didn't the life signs detector pick up a signal?" John asked.

Ronon's blaster clicked. "Doesn't matter. If she's here, I'll find her."

" _We'll_ find her." John stressed.

"I would like to help." Teyla offered.

Alice avoided looking at her friend, and awkwardly stepped towards the doorway. She could just about hear Elizabeth softly telling her it wasn't the best idea.

—-

The soft taps of their boots was the only sound Alice could hear as they made their way down yet another deserted corridor.

Ronon was about three meters ahead of her and John. Like a hound dog tracking a scent, his movements were more animalistic than human. Every movement was deliberate and calculated as he hunted. This was what he enjoyed, what he drew pleasure from.

For Alice, every nerve was on edge. Every corner or door they passed she expected something to reach out and grab them. Despite the chill of the station, a byproduct of being so deep underwater, her palms felt hot and clammy against her rifle.

"About what happened on Earth…" John's whisper almost made her jump.

"What."

"I wanted to say... I mean… I don't want you to think-"

She could tell how uncomfortable he was having said this much. Alice felt the heat travel from her hands to her face. "I don't think this it the time-"

Before she could finish a dark phantom appeared ahead of them. Ronon stopped moving, allowing John to take the lead and into what was most definitely a trap. Alice stayed with Ronon and together they headed down the next hall.

Small clicks on the radio told Alice someone, mostly John, had switched over to another channel. The static in her ear felt deafening.

"Riles. Ronon, I'm headin' back to the Jumper. Meet me there."

Both of them were running before John had even finished his sentence. "We're on our way." She huffed into the radio.

The radio clicked again, but this time more voices were added. "Sheppard! Help me! Please!" Alice didn't recognise the voice, but the fear was unmistakable.

"McKay!" John shouted.

They ran faster, Alice's lungs burned, and no matter how hard she pushed Ronon remained a couple of metres ahead of her. But he came to an abrupt halt as his body slammed into an invisible force. His body recoiled back, and he was barely able to land on his feet. "McKay!"

Alice managed to stop herself just short of face planting the shield. Her body tensed as they stared at the space in front of them. Alice bounced up and down with anxious energy. "Rodney..."

"We're working on it." He snapped.

"Graydon's dead. Fed upon." John reported, a distinct military detachment in his tone.

"What about Dickenson?" Elizabeth responded.

"No sign of him yet. Let's see if we can find him using the, uh ..." his voice trailed off.

"Sheppard?" Elizabeth's voice was tight. "Sheppard, come in."

"Anytime Rodney." She hissed. And as if by magic the barrier dropped.

Subtleties forgotten, they charged towards the Jumper. The door to the Jumper was still lowered, but no one was outside.

Alice's shoes slid along the tiled floor as they slowed down, guns raised. Moving closer they could hear a faint voice. It seemed ancient, powerful and echoed in her skull.

Ronon growled and ran forward both hands on his blaster and fired into the Jumper.

Alice had just stepped forward enough to see John on his knees in front of a Wraith Queen.

At the same time Alice saw this, three things happened. The electronic bang of Ronon's gun, a sharp loud crack, and the shattering of glass. Before she even had time to blink the ocean had started flowing towards her.

The water hit her body with the force of a ton of bricks. She felt water rush into her mouth, nose and ears as it thrust her back away from the jumper, carrying her down the halls. Her body spun and the water seemed as black as oil. She had no way to tell which way was up, and even if she did there was nothing she could do.

Maybe this is it, she thought as her lungs burned from lack of oxygen.

—-

There was a horrible feeling on her chest. It repeated every few seconds and made her flinch.

There was something in the background making noise, but she couldn't figure out what it was.

She briefly wondered if she was dead. But then there was a strong acidic taste forced its way out of her mouth and the world rolled over as burning liquid forced itself up her throat.

The world was still black, and her thoughts came in a random jumbled mess. She tried to focus on one of them, but each time it vanished just as it started solidifying.

The pain came back, then one thought was clear, air. She coughed and sucked in a deep breath taking in as much air as she could.

The pain on her chest stopped, and she felt fingers on either side of her face. "Riles. Can you hear me?"

She coughed and tried to open her eyes. They felt gritty and sore, but slowly colors and shapes started coming into focus. "Blown up and drowned all in one week. That's got to be a record." She croaked.

No one laughed though. John was standing over her, dripping wet. She coughed again, her throat ached. Then another thought popped into her head. The Queen.

Her eyes widened. "Where-Where is it?" She looked around and tried to push herself up.

"Careful." John slipped his leg behind her back and helped her up into a sitting position.

Alice was soaked head to toe, her tac vest was unzipped and pushed back off her shoulders. And her sternum ached.

"You're alright." He said softly to her. "Ronon's got the Wraith." Alice's eyes darted around until she saw Ronon tying up the unconscious Wraith's arms and legs. "Do you think you can stand?"

She nodded, and with his help got up to her feet. Despite a slight ache in her throat and an acidic, salty taste in her mouth, Alice felt surprisingly okay.

He gave her a full once over, making sure she wasn't about to collapse. If they weren't trying to haul a half conscious Wraith down the halls of an abandoned drilling platform, she was sure he wouldn't even let her move right now. "Alright, let's get back to the others."

She just nodded and started back in the direction of the control room. John's hand never leaving her back, his fingers making micro-adjustments every-time she began to lose her balance.

Behind her she could hear the scrape of Ronon dragging the Wraith along the ground.

John took her straight to the crew quarters whilst Ronon and the others went into the next room that had a large table big enough to lay the Wraith on. Rodney had suggested it might have been a small infirmary or medbay, judging by the equipment they'd found in there.

The room was quiet as John helped her over to one of the beds, her body had started to involuntarily tremble from the cold clothes sticking to her body. "John.. Really I'm okay." She said as she sat down on the bed, but John ignored her walking over to one of their backpacks and pulled out a shock blanket and a couple of black tops. Unzipping his tac-vest he threw it off and on top of the bag. Then, in one swift movement he pulled his wet shirt over his head and dropped it on the floor. Alice thought she should avert her eyes, but she didn't want to.

She watched every muscle ripple and move under his skin as he pulled the fresh t-shirt over his head.

Then made his way back to her. "You need to put this on." He held out the other black top to her. Swallowing, she shrugged her tac vest off and allowed it to drop back onto the bed. Standing up, she copied John's movement and slipped out of her wet shirt.

Just like her, John didn't look away. She wasn't going to tell him to either. Once she'd pulled the top on, she dropped back down onto the bed and John draped the silver foil blanket over her. "Both you and Ronon almost drowned too. Why am i the only one with the silly blanket?"

John let out a small laugh. "Cause we weren't stupid enough to swallow half the ocean." He sat down next to her and opened his arms.

Without hesitating she leaned into him, her body relaxing against his warmth. His hands rubbed her arm up and down. "I'm sorry about last night. That…that shouldn't have happened." He cleared his throat. "Look, I really don't want to mess this up. You're one of the most important people to me…I…"

Alice sighed. "John... You're never going to lose me." Alice's stomach lurched, it felt like she was standing on a cliff just teetering on the edge. If she said the wrong thing, then she'd fall and that would be it. "But if don't want…"

John held her tightly and opened his mouth.

The radio clicked. "Sheppard. It's starting to wake up." Ronon said.

Pursing his lips John shook his head. "Copy. On my way." He gave her a final once over. "Try to stay out of trouble for five minutes okay?" He grabbed his rifle and tac-vest.

She smirked. "I'll do my best." Then her tone dropped. "John. Are we good?"

John smiled back. "Of course."

—-

Instead of laying back and letting her body recover from drinking down a gallon of sea water, Alice had given herself 20 minutes to rest before she headed for the control room.

"We should be able to keep the forcefields up until Atlantis sends a rescue Jumper, but station communications are still down, so ..." Radek was saying, as she approached.

"I should have listened to Teyla. This wouldn't have happened." Rodney shook his head lightly as he worked.

"It's not your fault." Both heads turned to watch her walk in.

Rodney didn't look convinced, especially as he took in her appearance. She could still feel the chill of the air on her wet hair and her pants were still mildly damp. "You almost died. I'm the one who sent those men back to the Jumper."

Radek tried to comfort him. "Well, the sensors indicated that there was nobody here, so ..."

Another scientist turned around. "I don't think there _was_ , sir. I think the Wraith arrived here _after_ we did the initial scans."

"What?" Alice and Rodney said at the same time.

"You asked me to do a search with the remote sensors. I found something." The scientist activated the screen, which showed an outer shot of the platform. A short distance away, was a Wraith cruiser. "We didn't notice it on the way down because it's radiating very little E.M."

Rodney listed his hand to his ear. "Guys? Head back here. I think I have a few answers."

"Do you mind?" Alice asked heading to the console. The scientist moved aside, allowing her to take control and adjust the view screen.

It only took a few minutes before the others joined them. "A Wraith cruiser." John said, before they even had a chance to mention it.

"It's almost completely buried in silt." Alice said.

"Which means it's been here a very, very, very long time." Radek added.

"Yes, give or take a _very_." Rodney snarked.

"That doesn't explain how she got here." John said.

"Maybe she swam over." Elizabeth theorised.

John shook his head. "No, no. The pressure at that depth is ..."

"... is deadly to humans, but she's not human, remember?" Rodney finished, looking mildly disturbed.

Alice nodded. "With the Wraith's ability to heal itself ..." Her eyes darted over to the screen that had once shown the internal scanners. "We also have no idea if she's the only one."

John's eyes shifted, like he was reading in the air. Something he did when he was trying to think. "Teyla could find out."

"You saw what it did to her the first time." Elizabeth countered. "And you want her to try again?"

"What choice do we have. It's not like the Wraith to just throw about empty threats." He said, choosing his words carefully.

Elizabeth seemed to ponder the idea, her brow furrowing, finally she looked up and directed her gaze at Rodney and Alice. "What's the chances of repairing the internal scanners?"

Alice bit down on her lower lip. "I'm not sure we'll ever be able to repair them. I'd suggest manually scanning the rig with handheld scanners, but they were all in the Jumper."

Elizabeth nodded. "I'm not going to force her to do it." Then she turned and headed out of the room.

John lingered behind. "Do what you can with the comms."

She gave him a small smile. "I'll do my best."

—

It was exactly 48 minutes later that John and Elizabeth walked back in. Alice knew as she'd been looking at her wrist every 30 seconds once she'd heard Teyla had agreed. Her legs constantly fidgeting.

"How's Teyla?" Rodney blurted out, before John and Elizabeth had even made it halfway over to them.

"She's resting. I think it took a lot more out of her than she's willing to admit." Just from Elizabeth's tone, she could tell it wasn't good news.

"What's the news?" John asked, diverting attention away from Elizabeth.

Rodney seemed blissfully unaware, as he dove straight into his report on the station. "OK, well, it looks like the Ancients chose this section of the ocean floor because the planet's crust is remarkably thin right below us, allowing them to drill directly into the magma and maximise the geothermal power output."

"OK ..."

"Which means there's a great deal of potential energy directly beneath this station." Radek added.

John raised both his eyebrows. "That's the news? That this place works as advertised?"

Leave to Rodney to float around the punchline. Alice took in a breath. "No. The news is that if they were to detonate, say, the self-destruct of a Wraith cruiser on just such a wafer-thin crust ..."

The gravity of what she was saying already hit Elizabeth. "Oh my God."

"... all that thermal energy directly beneath us will be released all at once." She finished, her eyes reactively seeking out John's.

He was already looking at her. "So, bad news."

"Yeah. The initial explosion will be magnified a thousand times. We're talking catastrophic." Rodney explained his shoulders sagging.

"So it won't just be us that's affected."

"No. Atlantis will be affected as well. It's well within the blast radius." Alice said, trying to keep the sense of defeat out of her tone.

Elizabeth looked up. "And we have no way to warn them?"

"They'd never even see it coming."

John started pacing back and forth, running a hand through his hand. "So we disarm the self-destruct."

Rodney held up his hand. "That's brilliant, but we still need to get there."

"And how do we do that without the Jumper?" Elizabeth asked.

"We're way behind schedule. They're gonna send a rescue Jumper any minute now." John was still pacing.

Rodney shook his head. "Even if they've left already - I mean the _moment_ we were overdue ..." He trailed off.

"They won't make it in time." Alice finished for him.

John stopped, his back towards them. "How far is the cruiser?"

Radek, who had been silently watching their conversation turned to his laptop. "Um, less than a kilometre."

"She swam that far?! What _is_ she?!"

"A formidable enemy."

Rodney clicked his fingers. "I have an idea." He started walking out of the room, talking about the database as he moved. "Aly, you stay here and monitor. Also we need the comms back up as soon as possible."

"But-" She started.

"McKay's right. I need you to stay here and keep things calm." John gave her a look that he knew she wouldn't be able to say no to.

"Fine."

Alice tried to focus on the comms, Radek helped but his eyes kept drifting over to Elizabeth who was monitoring John and Rodney's ocean walk.

It was likely another Jumper was on its way to them, so even if she could manage to get a short range text message to them they'd be able to relay it to the city. But that meant cannibalising other systems for parts. And trying to decide between potentially critical systems wasn't easy.

"This is Weir. How close are you?"

Alice had her earpiece tapped into the main comms channel, so she would be able to keep track of everything without actually looking at the screens.

"Almost there, but we're runnin' out of time. We may need Teyla to do her Kreskin act again." John replied.

"I'd rather not have to. I think it could be much too dangerous for her."

"So is exploding magma."

"I am walking as fast as I can." Rodney muttered irritably in a low voice.

Elizabeth paced towards them. "We need to know how to disarm the system." She said, mostly to herself. Then without warning she picked up Alice's spare stunner and headed for the crew quarters.

Alice tapped her ear. "Ronon. Elizabeth is on her way to you."

"Got it." His gruff voice replied.

Alice checked her watch. They had just under 30 minutes left. She'd picked up her pace on the repairs, and conscripted the help of most of the scientists, but even then she was worried they weren't going to make it.

"Elizabeth, you there?" John didn't sound like someone with good news.

"Any luck?"

"Negative. If we don't get the command code in less than thirty minutes, we're dead."

They'd gone over John's plan four times. Alice still wasn't convinced. "She's not any ordinary Wraith. What if she figures it out." She'd stopped working and moved aside just out of earshot of the other scientists. The last thing they needed was to hear the worry and panic in her voice.

"I am confident I'll be able yo convince her." Teyla's voice was strong. "She believes me to be weak, I will use that to my advantage."

There was a pause on the line as everyone mulled over the plan. "We have to try." John said. "We don't have any choice."

"Okay." Elizabeth said, it sounded like she was standing right next to Teyla.

"We're close to getting comms back up." Alice said. "Good luck."

She took a moment to put a mask of confidence on before heading back. The scientists needed reassurance, and she needed to believe this was going to work. Radek gave her an expectant look when she squatted down beside him.

He knew better than to ask. She gave him a small nod and they went back to work.

The entire room listened tensely until John gave them the all clear. The plan had actually worked, the Queen had disabled the self-destruct and Rodney – of all people Rodney – had managed to kill her.

Alice held her tablet in her hand. "Riles." She looked up when she heard her name.

John was walking toward her, looking oddly sheepish.

"Hey, I was just about to buzz you. We've managed to re-establish comms, Lorne had already sent a jumper. It should be here within the hour."

John nodded along as she spoke. "Great. Dying down here wasn't exactly on my list of things to do."

Rolling her eyes she turned back to her console. "Rodney was right though, we actually might be able to get this station back up and running. With a little TLC, of course." She looked back, to see him looking uninterested. "What that means, is we might be able to take some of the stress off the ZPM."

John raised his finger. "That… would be a good outcome."

Alice placed the tablet down onto the console. "Are you alright?"

John rubbed the back of his neck. "I…just wanted to make sure you were okay. I'd really prefer if you let one of the medics look over you."

"Really, I'm fine." She turned back. "but if it gets you off my back. Carson is with the team coming down. I'll get myself looked over when he gets here."

"Good." John shoved his hands in his pocket, but instead of heading off he continued to linger.

"Was there something else?"

She watched as his eyes darted around the room. Following his gaze, she realised he was taking note of how many people were around them. "I wanted to…"

Alice chewed the inside of her cheek. "Maybe we should talk about it when we're alone…"

"That sounds like a good idea." John nodded, staring down at the floor. "Let me know when the Jumper gets here." Then he headed for the door.


	41. Chapter 41

**A/N Here we go again. This chapter was hard to write, as I wanted to try to capture the true horror experiencing something like this would have on a character. As well as continuing to deal with the loss of a close friend. Too often I feel characters emotional baggage is glossed over, until it's plot relevant.**

 **I was so amazed and in awe of the warm welcome back I received. Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, I hope this one is just as good.**

Alice stood beside Chuck, listening to the soft thuds of the dialling crystals. She'd only been back from the drilling platform for a few hours before Chuck had called her up to the gateroom. After spending a few days on the bottom of the ocean her senses were still a bit out of sync, even with the Ancient's internal dampeners.

The gate opened and she leaned forward. Her hand covering her mouth. "We have a stable connection." Alice waited, her throat tight. "Doctor?" Chuck glanced between her and the wormhole.

Alice swallowed and lowered her hand. "This is Doctor Riley, calling anyone at the Taranan settlement. Come in please." She waited, but all that came back was static. "Repeat. This is Alice Riley. Can anyone hear me? Please respond."

Again, nothing. This was the third time she'd attempted to make a connection in the last two days. Since Chuck first informed her that the Taranan's had missed two of their scheduled check ins.

"This is Alice Riley. Please respond." She tried again. Her eyes darting to the screen readout, searching for any detected frequency variations that might indicate a radio or broadcast signal. But the graph stayed steady. "Shut it down." Her voice was tight, controlled.

The wormhole disengaged. Alice stayed still for a minute, before straightening up and heading for Elizabeth's office. To her dismay no one was there.

Using the railing to spin herself back around she sprinted down the nearest stairwell and started running towards John's office. Normally, it would be the last place she'd go looking for him. But it was coming up to the 6 month review period, and he had to file personnel evaluations. This was the only time you'd find him hidden away behind a desk.

She let out a sigh of relief as she opened the door to see John sat in his chair. His head was propped up by his arm, with his laptop opened in front of him. His eyes looked almost glazed over. Though they brightened as she stepped into the room. "Hey, you alright?"

Alice opened her mouth and everything tumbled out. The fact the Taranan's hadn't been replying, her fears and the need to organise a mission all blurted out in about 20 seconds.

John looked slightly alarmed, but he put a lot of effort into calmly standing up from his desk and walking over to her. "Okay, first things first take a breath."

Alice took in a deep breath, John hands reached up and stroked her arms comfortingly. "We have to find out what's going on. It's been too long they never miss a check in. And I have to be on it. I know what you're going to say, but I know these people better than anyone."

"Okay, okay. I'll talk to Elizabeth and get the rest of the team geared ready to go in the hour."

"These people trust me, whatever has happened I'm the best person to have on this team." She continued to ramble.

"Riles, you're coming. Go gear up."

"But- wait what." She blinked at him, her brain taking a minute to process the information.

John gave her shoulders a small squeeze. "Gear up."

Before she knew it, she was geared up and stepping through the gate with her former team. They re-materialised in the familiar open clearing of the Taranan's new planet. This was where Alice and the team had helped them resettle after the volcano made their former home uninhabitable. She'd spent a lot of time here, especially during the five months she'd been living on New Athos.

"They've got a lot done in the short time they've been here." Rodney remarked as the small town grew closer.

"They're hard-working and motivated. The last time I was here they'd just finished constructing the last home." Alice's eyes searched over the settlement, looking for any hint of movement. She should have known they hadn't checked in sooner, she thought.

"This is Lieutenant Colonel John Sheppard from Atlantis calling anyone in the Taranan settlement. Please respond." John was stood next to her, he waited a few moments, but there was no reply. "I thought I'd give it a shot. Alright, let's go." He put on his sunglasses and gave the go ahead for the team to advance.

When they reached the outskirts of the village, John slowed their pace and raised his gun cautiously. Alice followed suit, and on his mark fanned out into the buildings. She opened a door and peered inside. The house was empty, but nothing looked out of place, it was like the inhabitants had just vanished.

After she'd looked through a couple of buildings she rejoined the team. None of them looked like they'd found anything. John still had his gun raised. "Anybody home?"

Rodney dropped his gun. "Well, it looks like they abandoned the place."

"Well, maybe they found somewhere better to live." Ronon suggested. But that didn't seem to explain why everything was still in place.

"But they left everything behind. Why would they do that?" Teyla asked, echoing Alice's thoughts.

John led them into one of the bigger main structures. It looked more like an office or control room than a house. A row of computers sat on desks. John stepped forward and switched on one of them. "Let's get these work stations powered up. Maybe we can figure out where these people went."

Alice moved to comply when Rodney held up his hand. "Oh. I got something. A single life sign."

"Where?" Alice blurted out.

"It's, uh, below us." He fumbled with the settings on the scanner. "Quite a _way_ below us."

John turned to Alice. "They built underground?"

She shook her head. "No. But there is a network of tunnels running all through this area of the planet, we assumed one of the previous civilisations that lived here was similar to the Genii." She cringed at the mention of the Genii, not sure how John would react to their name. It was their first mission together in a while and Alice didn't want to cause any friction. "The Taranans didn't use them though."

"Yeah, well, _someone_ is." Rodney turned the scanner around to prove his point.

John's face was tense. His eyes shifted from Rodney back to Alice. "How do we get there?"

Alice swallowed. "This way."

—-

Alice was the first to drop into the tunnels. She clicked the torch on her gun, shining it up and down the dark passage way. "Clear." She called up, just loud enough for John and the others to hear.

John slid down the rope next. Followed by Teyla, Rodney and then Ronon. They fanned out down each path, guns raised. "Rodney?" John asked quietly.

Rodney pointed straight ahead of him. John tapped Alice on the shoulder and lead the them down the tunnel. They stopped to clear each room as they moved. But each of them was empty, with no sign anyone had been there recently. A horrible feeling started creeping up Alice's spine. She tried to tune it out, but every empty room she cleared, she felt less and less hopeful that this was just some big mistake.

"Wait!" Teyla called out behind Alice. She was shining her torch into an open doorway, her face screwed up in confusion.

Ronon pulled the door open wider. "Woah!"

Alice and John moved closer to look inside. Hanging from the ceiling was a dark red sack, it was almost translucent and had the same complexion as skin.

As Teyla's light shone across it, she noticed what looked like a series of veins running through the skin. Alice had to suppress a shudder. "What is that?"

"Looks like a cocoon of some sort." Teyla answered.

"What's inside it?" Ronon asked.

John cautiously walked closer, shining the light from his rifle at the cocoon. It had been ripped open. "Well, whatever it is, it's not inside any more." He looked up at the nervously, Alice felt a sense of cold dread filing her stomach, if those old sci-fi films Evan made her watch had taught her anything she knew this wasn't a good sign.

John jerked his head and they headed back out into the main tunnel. Alice almost jumped as Elizabeth's voice suddenly spoke in her ear. "How's it going there?"

"I think I know why we lost contact with the Taranans." John said grimly, casting a glance back over at the cocoon.

Alice tried to distract herself, trying to think of any possibility that didn't end with the death of the people she had befriended. Her mind raced, barely listening to Elizabeth and John's voices as he reported in what they'd found so far.

Her eyes ran across the walls, all she could think was how the radio signal from the gate managed to penetrate all the way into the tunnels. Maybe those who had lived here before installed signal amplifiers. From what she'd seen of the underground complex it didn't look quite as advanced at the Genii, but they had only explored what looked like the outer fringes of a larger complex.

Who knew how long these tunnels were, or how deep they ran. John kept the team moving deeper into the complex. "It's a hell of a complex down here." He muttered lowly.

"It's like a maze." Ronon was walking just behind her.

Rodney thrust his hand out and pointed down the corridor. "We're closer." He whispered.

"How far?" John glanced around at the team. His brow knotting together. It was obvious to Alice that he had the same feeling as her.

Rodney's face was pale in the light from the torches. "Forty metres. It's stopped moving, so we're gaining ground on it."

"Alright, good." He stopped and looked at each of them in turn. "Look, if it makes any sudden moves ..." He turned back and continued walking. "... I want you to make sure that ..." He stopped again so suddenly, Alice almost rammed into Teyla's back. "Where's Ronon?"

Alice whipped her head around to see no one behind her. She hadn't heard anything and it couldn't have been more than a minute since she last saw him.

"Ronon!" John hissed out into the darkness.

Alice shone her torch along the floor, searching for any signs that would tell them where he went. Then she heard a low cough, from up on her left, down a small passageway they'd passed. "In here." Ronon called out.

Alice hurried back along the tunnel. "Riles, slow down." John called out, but she barely heard him. She turned down the smaller tunnel and she could see a door up ahead. But her feet froze a meter away from the door as a familiar stench hit the back of her throat.

Bile rose into her mouth and her stomach heaved. It was the kind of smell you only ever needed to experience once to instantly recognise.

She didn't want to step into the room, to see the horrors she knew lay behind it. Her legs felt weak, and pressure started building in her chest making it harder to breathe.

John and the others stopped behind her. She felt his hand on her shoulder and she knew he recognised it too. That was the curse of their pasts as soldiers. "I'll go first." He whispered into her ear. Brushing past her and into the room. She could just see his face pale and the stiffening of his body as his eyes roamed over the room.

Cold chills ran down her body. Part of her wanted to stay out here, let the others tell her what was in the room. But the Taranan's had been her friends, and she needed to know what happened to them. No matter how uncomfortable it made her. She steeled her nerves, and forced her legs to move.

The smell was over powering as she stepped into the small room. It filled her nose and mouth, choking her. Her eyes tore across the room, trying to take in everything.

Standing in the corner opposite her was Ronon, he was covering his mouth looking down at the floor emotionless.

But there was no floor. Covering every inch of it were dead bodies.

She wanted to scream, to sob and run away. But instead she stood frozen, staring at the grotesque pile of bodies. Most of them had their eyes open, staring out into nothing, whilst others wore looks of pure terror, like they had been killed out of fright. She looked at the faces. Any hope she had about seeing the Taranan's again died when she began to recognise them.

"Oh my God!" Rodney gasped behind her as he shuffled into the room.

John's hand was back on her shoulder. She hadn't even noticed he was beside her. He gave her a small squeeze.

"It's the Taranan's" Teyla gasped in horror.

John moved closer to the pile, squatting down next to the bodies. His face contorted as he got closer to them. "Wounds on their neck - all of them. Does this look familiar?"

"It looks _disturbingly_ familiar." Rodney said, stepping closer to him.

"You don't think, uh ..." he stared straight at Rodney. Alice knew what they were thinking even though she didn't want to. The iratus bug, every single one of them had the life sucked out of them by the creature that had almost killed John three years ago. "Ronon? Oh, for God's sakes!"

Alice turned her head up to the corner where she'd last seen him, but he was gone. "Ronon?!" She yelled, her voice shakey and unnaturally high pitched. The smell hit the back of her throat, and she had to clamp her mouth shut again to stop herself from vomiting.

"In here." The response came from the connecting room. Teyla and Rodney didn't hesitate, moving carefully around the bodies towards Ronon. Alice found she couldn't move.

"Look at me." John whispered, his fingers gently guided her face towards his. "Just me."

Even when she stared into John's eyes, all she could see were the horrified faces of the Taranan's as though the images were burnt onto her retinas. Together they carefully stepped around to bodies into the next room. Her eyes never leaving John's.

The smell wasn't as bad in here, but it felt like it was never going to leave her.

"You can't wander off like that. You gotta ..." John started, but his voice trailed off as he gazed around the room. The room looked like a makeshift laboratory. In the middle of it was a table with a large container on it. Suspended in a green liquid inside was an Iratus bug. He stared at it in dread. "Oh, no."

"An Iratus bug?" Alice was trying to make sense of everything happening. _Who would do this._

"I _hate_ those things." John pointed his gun at the container.

"That explains why the wounds looked so familiar." Rodney muttered.

"What is it doing here? Iratus bugs are not indigenous to this planet." Teyla said.

"Well, _somebody_ brought it here." Ronon grunted, looking around the rest of the room.

Alice tried to focus her mind on the lab, and not on the room full of bodies behind her. "Some kind of sick Wraith experiment?"

"Well, I doubt the Taranans did this to themselves." Rodney said sarcastically.

Alice ignored Rodney and stepped over to the consoles, if there was any tech then maybe she could find out what was going on. Teyla closed her eyes. "I do not sense any Wraith in this settlement."

"Oh, our little friend is on the move. It's headed right for us." Rodney sighed.

Alice turned back to John and Rodney. "How fast?"

Rodney's eyes widened as he glanced back at the scanner. _"Very_ fast."

"It knows we're here." Ronon started to head out of the room.

"Ronon, stun." John ordered as he followed behind him.

Ronon spun around his jaw set firm, as he glared angrily at John. "Why?"

"Stun." John repeated firmly.

Alice could tell he was clearly annoyed, but he obeyed, switching his blaster over to stun.

Readying her gun, she peered cautiously back through to the room with all the dead bodies in it. If she had the chance she would kill whatever had done this to her friends.

Rodney's detector began to beep faster. Suddenly John jumped as a man's voice came through their earpiece. "Colonel Sheppard, come in." Alice recognised the voice of Lieutenant Negley, he led one of the Marine units. "Colonel Sheppard, this is Lieutenant Negley. Do you copy?"

John held down the talk button on his vest. "Yes, Lieutenant." He hissed lowly.

"Sir, my team has just come through the Gate and we're proceeding to the settlement in order ..."

"Great. Terrific. We'll meet you there. Right now I need radio silence. Sheppard out." John said quietly and then switched his radio off.

Alice's eyes darted between her team and the room. Her fingers shaking slightly. "It's stopped." Rodney whispered.

"Why?" John asked.

"How am _I_ supposed to know?!" Rodney snapped back.

Alice saw John shaking his head out of the corner of her eye. "Well, where is it?"

"I think it's out in the tunnel." Rodney said.

John and Ronon exchanged a look and headed back out to the main tunnel. Alice followed, making sure not to look at the faces on the bodies around her, and keeping her mouth firmly pressed shut. She couldn't bear to breathe.

Once they were back in the main tunnel, she took in a deep breath. But the acrid tang of the room still made bile instantly rise up into Alice's throat.

John and Ronon took the lead, Rodney was just behind them holding out his scanner, Alice and Teyla covered the back. "It's close." Rodney whispered.

John and Ronon cautiously started to walk down the tunnel. Rodney gave Alice a nervous look, but she wasn't in the mood to pander to him. She jerked her head towards the men ahead, giving him a glare that said move or I'll make you.

All of Alice's senses were on high alert as they stepped towards the small blinking dot. She wanted to make whoever did this pay. The tunnels were quiet, she could only hear the sound of their boots as they walked.

Then all hell broke loose.

There was a loud roar that shook the ground beneath Alice's feet and a door just ahead of her burst open. A creature almost two meters tall crashed through, Alice instinctively raised her gun, but the creature grabbed Ronon and slammed him against the wall. She couldn't get a clear shot, not without potentially shooting Ronon. "No shot!" She yelled over the noises of the creature.

Ronon held the creature off him, grabbling with its talon like arms. Her fingers curled around the trigger, the second she saw an opening she flexed and her muzzle blasts lit up the dark tunnel. Someone else opened fire as well, but Alice couldn't see who it was. The monster screamed and recoiled back away from Ronon. Alice stopped firing as the creature lunged for John, knocking him to the ground.

Unsheathing his sword, Ronon slashed down at the beast before it could attack John. The beast let out an ear piercing screech and started to flee down the tunnel. Alice opened fire, stepping closer to John as Teyla and Rodney opened fire as well. Two red blasts shot down the tunnel, briefly lighting up the path, showing the creature running off into the darkness. Alice dropped her rifle and pulled her finger off the trigger.

Wide eyed she turned to assess her team. John was jumping up from the floor, completely unharmed. "Ronon?" She asked, her eyes readjusting to the darkness. "You alright?"

He brushed off some dirt from his clothes, but otherwise looked fine. "Yeah, I'm good."

"What the hell _was_ that thing?" Rodney shrieked pointing his gun down the tunnel.

"What is that?" Teyla had pointed her light onto the ground, showing large black clump that Alice couldn't quite make out.

Ronon bent down and picked it up. "Ugh. It's a piece of an arm it looks like." He held it up and Teyla moved her light over it. The arm had two long narrow claws and a shorter third claw. It was shiny and looked like a giant bug's foot.

John scrunched his nose up in disgust. "Let's hope that slows him down."

"Well, maybe it'll bleed to death." Rodney said hopefully.

"Or just grow another arm." Ronon let go of the arm and it splattered onto the floor.

Alice dropped to one knee, unclipping her backpack from her vest. "Carson would kill me if I didn't bring this back to him." She was halfway through pulling out a biohazard bag when it hit her.

He was gone.

Her fingers fumbled with the bag, no one said anything, but she felt her chest constrict painfully.

"I'm sure Doctor Keller would be interested to examine it." Teyla said softly, crouching down next to her and offered her hand out to take the bag.

Alice tried to swallow the lump in her throat, handing the bag to Teyla and helping her secure the arm.

"It's still moving away from us." Rodney was looking down at the scanner, even in the low light, Alice could see his eyes watering.

"Let's hope losing a chunk of his arm slows him down." John turned to face the direction the creature had run.

Alice and Teyla stuffed the arm into her backpack and then stood up. "We need to finish it off to make sure." Ronon moved past Alice to stand next to John, his hand briefly brushing over her shoulder.

"I couldn't agree with you more." John lifted his hand up and they started moving down the tunnel again.

"Yeah, and how're we gonna do that, huh? Am I the only one who noticed that our bullets had no effect on it?" Rodney complained, but the tone of his voice sounded forced. He was doing was she was trying to do, focus on the situation at hand, not Carson.

"That thing has a shell on its back, like a Christmas Beetle." Alice said.

"Or Alien." John muttered. Then twisted his head to look at Ronon. "Right, set that thing to kill again." He pressed down on his radio. "Lieutenant Negley, this is Sheppard. How far away from the settlement are you?" But there was no reply. "Negley, this is Sheppard, come in?"

"You did say radio silence." Rodney shrugged.

"Negley? Respond!" John snapped, but there was only static. "Great!" He growled.

"We might be too deep in the tunnels." Alice offered, though she doubted that was the truth.

Rodney patted John's arm to get his attention and then pointed to the right at a closed door. "It's through that doorway." He said in a hushed voice.

John nodded and gestured to the team to get in position. He would be taking the lead. Alice and Ronon took up positions on either side of John by the door, as Teyla and Rodney kept further behind them with their rifles aimed at the door. Alice let her fingers reach out and curl around the handle of the door.

Lifting her eyes to glance at Ronon, he dipped his head and Alice moved throwing open the door allowing him and John to rush in.

Alice followed after them, looking at the room in disgust. Hanging from the ceiling were hundreds of pods. Her torch aimed at the one nearest to them, and it was obvious that unlike the last one, these were still occupied. "This is _not_ good." John said, looking at the pods. John started examining the room. "Cover the tunnel."

Alice nodded and herded Teyla and Rodney back out into the dark passageway. "You two take that side, Rodney keep your eye on that scanner." Rodney looked too scared to say anything and just obediently followed her directions. Alice trained her eyes down the tunnel, her light didn't reach too far into the darkness, so if this creature moved fast she'd only have a few seconds from when she spotted it to open fire or it would be on top of her. She kept her ears pricked to hear anything from the tunnel or the room.

Footsteps approached the door. "We've searched the whole room. That thing ain't in there. Just a bunch of unhatched eggs." John reported back.

"Pods." Rodney corrected.

"Whatever." John retorted, Alice could almost picture him rolling his eyes.

"Is there another way out?" Teyla asked.

"No. It's the only door to the room." Ronon appeared next to John.

"Well, then, he must have found another way out, because it is still on the move." Rodney turned the scanner around so they could all see the small dot moving away from them.

John lifted his head up to the ceiling. "Alien." Rodney followed his gaze up nervously. "The movie, Alien. They used the air shafts when they over-ran the ship."

"And then they systematically killed the entire crew one by one. Thank you for bringing that up." Rodney squeaked.

"They didn't kill 'em _all_." John countered.

"What do we do now?" Teyla raised an eyebrow expectantly at John.

But before John could answer, Ronon took out his blaster. "Track this thing down and kill it."

"Agreed. _But_ first things first." John shone his torch at Alice. "Get your C4."

Ripping open one of her vest pockets she took out a stick of C4 and headed back into the room. She pushed past the pods cautiously, hoping that the creatures inside couldn't feel their presence or that there wasn't some protective mother beast about to leap out at her. Every few steps she took, she cast her torch up to check the ceiling for any vents or shafts, the last thing she wanted was for one of these things to drop down onto her.

Finally she made it to the back of the room, there was a tight cluster of pods just to her left. Carefully, she peeled back the adhesive and attached the C4 to one of the outer pods. Her chest spasmed again, probably out of nerves. She was still fighting off the nausea from earlier, and the smell of the pods wasn't helping. Taking in a steadying breath she pulled the activating strip and heard the small beep telling her the charge was active.

Turning she started making her way back to the entrance, as cautiously as she did on her way down. But then Rodney yelled. "Go, go, go, go, go! Sheppard! They're hatching!"

"Riles! Move. Now." John shouted. She didn't think twice, caution forgotten and ran through the pods. They smacked into her shoulders, the impact sent a shot of pain down her left side. But her feet didn't stop moving. John was standing at the entrance, his hand out ready to grab her and swing her around the door into the tunnel. "We're good. Let's go!"

"Shut the door!" Rodney yelled as John and her ran into the tunnel.

Ronon was stood at the side and shoved the door closed, but before it could latch two clawed hands jutted through keeping the door open. John pivoted and shoved his gun through the gap, firing point blank at the beast. A shriek filled the air, and the hands retreated back into the room. Both John and Ronon threw themselves at the door. Once it clicked they back off. Alice grabbed Rodney's arm and ran down the corner, Teyla ahead of them.

John and Ronon followed after them, then stopped. Alice clamped her arms over her ears, bracing her head. "Fire in the hole." John yelled clicking down on the detonator.

Alice squeezed her eyes shut as the tunnel shook, her chest heaving with effort as she tried to catch her breath. She could feel dirt from the ceiling falling onto her face and the roar of the explosion buffeted her hair. Once the shaking stopped, she opened her eyes and slowly pulled her arms away from her ears. "Everyone OK?" John spluttered.

"Yeah." Alice coughed, dust coating the back of her throat as she breathed in. The left side of her chest felt like someone had injected liquid fire into it.

"I think you singed my eyebrows! D'you think you used enough dynamite there, Butch?" Rodney moaned.

Alice ignored him and followed John as he, step by step headed back to the open doorway. The door had been blown of it's hinges and now laid deformed on the floor. If Alice thought the pods smelt bad before, they were worse barbecued. She recoiled at the doorway, as John grimaced and walked inside. "Rodney?"

Rodney fumbled with the scanner, probably distracted by the explosion. "I think we got 'em all."

John stepped back out of the room. Alice took a few paces back away from the entrance to make space for him. "Well, that's good."

"Except for our armless friend - he's still on the move." Rodney tilted the screen to show the singular dot.

John jerked his head down the tunnel. "Let's go get him."

Alice didn't need to be told to move out twice. Leading the way, she into the darkness and away from the toxic smell. Rodney followed a couple of paces behind, tapping her shoulder to direct her towards the creature. She could hear John behind her trying the radio again. "Lieutenant Negley, this is Sheppard, do you read? ... Negley, respond. ... Dammit!"

"Perhaps they encountered the creature." She heard Teyla say.

Ronon scoffed. "And what? Killed all four of them?"

Alice agreed with him. "No way. No creature is gonna take out four marines."

"It almost killed all of us." Rodney said.

"But it didn't." Ronon grunted.

John sighed. "We need to find 'em."

"If they were alive, we would see them on the life signs detector."

"Only if they're at the settlement, the scanners only have a range of 100 meters." Alice said.

"Where's the creature now?" John asked changing the subject.

"Wait a minute." Alice paused, turning to look back at Rodney, but he was facing the way they just came. "It's back _that_ way."

John and Ronon immediately turned facing their guns behind them. "Behind us?"

"You just said it was _that_ way." Ronon nodded down towards Alice.

"I did! Well, it _was_ , but it must have ... it must have doubled back." Rodney shrieked.

John gazed up at the ceiling. "Damned air shafts."

"Well, obviously it knows its way around this place better than we do. Perhaps we should consider returning to the Gate." Teyla turned back towards the exit.

"What, you mean give up?" Ronon scrunched up his face in disgust.

Teyla sighed. "No, not give up. We can find out what happened to the marines and request additional back-up so that we may do a proper search of the settlement."

Rodney pointed animatedly at Teyla. " I like this plan - I mean, if we're taking a vote."

Ronon turned and looked at John pointedly. "Sounds like giving up to me."

John cast a glance at Alice. "I'm with Teyla." She said.

He nodded. "Yeah. Enough of this cat and mouse. We're better off doing a full-scale sweep of this area."

"Including the air shafts." Rodney added.

"Alright. How do we get out of here?"

Alice pointed back down the main tunnel. "That way."

It didn't take them long to wind their way back through the tunnels and out the passage back to the surface. Alice had never felt more relieved to be out in the open. She filled her lungs with fresh air, but couldn't help the lingering memory of the stench that she was sure would prominently feature in every single nightmare she had from now on.

"The settlement is just back through these woods." Alice jerked her head, allowing John to retake the lead. She covered her mouth as more bile rose in her throat as she recalled the small room.

"Alright, let's make our way back to the gate and see if we can meet up with Negley." John said as he stepped past Alice.

Alice dropped back to walk beside Teyla, they made it back to the settlement in relative silence. Alice was having trouble forgetting the smell of the room. It felt like it had stuck to every item of clothing she wore, constantly reminding her that she failed. She'd promised those people they'd be safe, and now they were all dead, rotting in a pile.

Teyla's voice shook her out of her thoughts. "On all the worlds I've been to, I have never encountered anything like it."

"Did anybody get a good look at that thing?" John asked from up ahead.

"Aside from its severed appendage, no. That thing moved incredibly fast." Rodney huffed as he struggled to keep up.

"In some ways, it looked almost like a human." Ronon said softly.

"If, by "human," you mean clad in a grotesquely proportioned exoskeleton, yes - _very_ human."

Ronon grunted. "I meant it looked like it had two arms and two legs."

"It looked like a giant bug to me. I _hate_ those things." John stressed the word hate.

"If it was indeed a Wraith experiment, perhaps it was created by combining the genetic elements of the iratus bug with the Taranans." Teyla speculated.

"Teyla might be onto something. We know that's how the Wraith evolved originally." Alice drew in a deep breath, hoping to cleanse her airways.

"So, what? They're tryin' to create more Wraith?" Ronon muttered.

"That doesn't make any more sense. If they wanted to create more Wraith, wouldn't it be easier to get a male and female to, you know, get a room?" John made some lewd gestures.

Rodney scoffed. "It doesn't work that way with the Wraith, alright? At least, we don't think it does. We're not entirely sure as to the Wraiths' reproductive methods."

John threw a disgusted look over his shoulder at Rodney. "I don't wanna be around to watch _that_ film."

Rodney waved his hands in front of his face. "Anyway, look, it's probably less likely that they were trying to create another Wraith than they were actually trying to create some kind of a hybrid creature - probably to be used as a weapon."

"So what a Super-Wraith? That's _all_ we need!" Alice's lips curled at the thought of it. She looked up from her feet as John stopped moving, just head of them was the MALP, right by the DHD.

John looked behind them and back to the gate. "Well, that's the whole distance from the settlement. I don't see any sign of the marines yet."

Rodney pointed to the gate. "Maybe they went back to Atlantis."

John shook his head. "No, they would have radioed us."

Teyla lifted up her rifle. "They must have encountered the creature. There's no other explanation for why they are not responding to us." She looked around them warily, as if she expected the creature to burst out at them. Alice tightened her grip on her own rifle.

Rodney wiped his forehead. "If that thing took _them_ all out, then-then that is one nasty bug ... person."

"Dial us out." John kept his voice calm but he was definitely unsettled.

"Right." Rodney ran over to the DHD and pressed down on the first button. But instead of the usual noise, all Alice heard was a dull thud. It sounded like there was no power. "No."

"What?" Ronon grunted.

"No-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no-no." Rodney dropped to his knees and pried off the cover of the control panel. Alice moved over to look over his shoulder. She could see the problem clearly.

"Rodney?" John urged.

"Control crystal's missing." He shrieked.

"Missing?" Teyla repeated.

"We can't dial out?" Ronon asked.

"Well, fix it." John said frustrated.

Rodney straightened up. "It is not a matter of fixing, OK? The crystal is just gone. Someone has removed it to prevent anyone else from dialling out."

"So we stay here?" Ronon looked ready to kick the DHD.

Rodney held up his hands in defeat. "Hey, Elizabeth will wonder why we haven't checked in - she'll dial up to get our status; we can request back-up, also a Puddle Jumper to come and get us."

"We don't know how long that'll be. That could be hours." John sounded tetchy.

"So we go back to the settlement, try to find Negley and set up a base." Alice said.

"Alice is right and the life signs detector will alert us if the creature is nearby." Teyla dipped her head in respect to Alice.

"You want to go back?!" Rodney shrieked.

John pointed his index finger at Rodney's chest. "We're not leaving those marines behind. Let's go." Rodney started to complain but Ronon grabbed his vest and thrust him forward to follow after John.

—-

Alice held her breath as they returned back into the tunnels. Trying to breathe as little as possible and then only through her mouth. They'd past the room with the Taranan's without so much as a second glance.

Teyla and Ronon were in the lead this time, as John had dropped back to walk beside her. "Once we've figured out what's going on here we'll give them all a proper burial."

She was glad he hadn't asked her if she was okay. She could tell from his tone, that he wasn't okay either. "They deserved so much better than this." She managed to say, her voice thick with emotion.

"We'll figure this out." He reached out and gently entwined his finger with hers.

Then Teyla stopped moving. John instantly stiffened, moving forward to stand beside her. "What?"

Teyla looked up ahead of them, confused. "I am sensing something."

Alice tensed, raising her gun and twisting her body so her back was facing towards the group. She wasn't about to let anything get them from behind.

"Wraith?" Ronon asked.

"I cannot be certain." Teyla replied, her voice strained.

"Rodney?" John whispered.

Rodney fumbled with the life signs detector. "No. No, I've still just got the one reading. Still on the move, heading ..." he paused. "No. No, I'm picking up another life sign." He held the screen ip for John to see. "It's popped up out of nowhere."

"How is that possible?" Ronon asked in frustration.

"Maybe one of those eggs hatched." John said.

"Maybe. That, or part of the settlement is shielded." There was a slight tremble to Rodney's voice.

"Maybe it's one of the marines." Alice suggested.

John started moving. "Well, if it _is_ one of those marines, that something Teyla's sensing is heading right toward him."

In the silence of the tunnels, the beep of the detector sounded almost deafening. They headed down a staircase and the beeping quickened.

"They're close." Rodney whispered.

They kept moving. Every air shaft they passed, they shone their torches up to clear it. They weren't going to take any chances. Alice was just in front of Teyla, and a sudden loud bang made her spin around.

"What was that?" John asked.

Alice opened her mouth to ask Teyla if she'd seen anything, but no one was behind her. "Teyla." She called into the darkness but there was no reply.

"Teyla!" Ronon hissed, pushing his way past them back down the corridor. "Here!" He yelled as he started pulling on a handle.

Alice vaguely remembered seeing it open when they'd past it. "Teyla!" She yelled, trying to hear any response.

"Contact!" John shouted.

Alice turned and saw the creature as it stepped through a thin layer of mist that was now swirling in the hall. The creature roared and lunged forward. Alice opened fire, but the creature lashed out and caught her with the side of it's armour clad arm throwing her against the wall.

She let out a shriek, but recovered in time to see it approaching Rodney. He opened fire, making the creature let out an ear piercing scream. Electric red light filled the confined space, then everything went silent.

The crate dropped to the floor with a solid thump. Everyone was gasping and breathing hard. Ronon held his hand out to help Alice back to her feet. "Thanks." She mumbled, her eyes locked on the strange creature.

John took out his knife and stuck it in between the door and the wall. Trying to jimmy the latch. Ronon aimed his blaster at the entrance, as John prised the door open. Alice followed straight after Ronon, her torch quickly checking in the corners. It was a small room with only the one doorway, but there was no sign of Teyla.

"Where'd she go?" Rodney asked behind her. "I'm reading two life signs moving away from us, but one floor up, I think. That, or more air shafts."

John grunted. "Let's go."

They started running, all caution forgotten. As they chased after the two small dots. "Wait! They disappeared." Rodney shouted, out of breath.

"What?" John snapped.

"The life signs - they just vanished. I was right. Part of this settlement must be shielded."

John and Ronon exchanged a glance and both started to run down the corridor. Alice grabbed Rodney's vest and dragged him along after them. "Wait! No! We won't be able to track 'em."

They ran down hallway after hallway, to the point Alice was sure she wouldn't be able to easily follow their path back. But it didn't matter. Whatever the beast was, it had Teyla

"Which way?" John asked as they reached a junction.

Alice shone her torch down both corridors, both looking equally abandoned. Neither showed any obvious signs that anyone or anything had been there recently.

"I don't know." Rodney said, his voice on the verge of desperation. "It's not showing me anything. It's useless."

John let out a frustrated grunt. Ronon stepped to the left, pausing for a second. "This way."

Alice wasn't sure what led him to pick that direction, if he'd actually seen something or if it was just blind guessing. And she knew she'd never ask.

They ran until Alice's lungs and legs burned. A tightness built in her chest, but they kept running.

The tunnel they were running down came to an abrupt end, in front of them stood a lone door. John glanced back at them and tried the handle.

That would have been too easy.

"Must be some kind of security lockdown. Whoever took Teyla no doubt triggered it." Alice suggested.

"Figure how to open this up." John ordered.

"Stand back." Before Alice even had a chance to move, Ronon fired his blaster at the door at full charge. Sparks and bit of superheated metal flew out from the handle.

Alice jumped back, as Rodney and John both tried to avoid getting hit. "Jeez! You mind giving us a little more heads-up before you start blasting everything?!"

Ronon walked closer to the door, but it was still sealed shut. "You got any more C4?"

Alice and John worked quickly, their hands passing over each other as they connected their remaining C4 to the door. Alice stepped back to analyse their work. "That should do it."

John added the blinking detonator and together they retreated back behind the next corner where Ronon and Rodney waited.

"Alright, that's the last of the C4. Let's hope it's enough." He raised the remote. "Ready?"

Alice braced herself, raising her hands to her ears. She watched as his finger flicked the button. But nothing happened.

"What happened?" Rodney glanced between her and John.

John frowned and moved to look around the corner. "What are you doing?!" Alice's hand reached out to grab his vest. Just as she did the C4 ignited and a loud explosion vibrated the complex.

John had been quick enough to duck back in around the corner. She could see the curse word forming on his lips, but her ears were ringing so she couldn't hear it.

He lifted his hand to signal them to move out.

John and Ronon took the lead, while Alice waited for Rodney to follow after them.

Rodney took out the life signs detector from his vest, which beeped rapidly several times. "Woah! _Serious_ energy spike."

Alice swung her gun back behind them, it meant they'd just crossed the barrier of what ever was shielding part of the complex.

She could hear the laboured breaths of Ronon and John as they ran, but their pace didn't slow. Rodney was slowly starting to fall behind, his body not nearly conditioned for this prolonged activity.

"We need to go down." Rodney huffed.

John lifted his hand to signal he'd heard. The tunnels in this section were reinforced, the doors had a heavier plating as well. Whatever this complex had been created for, she assumed this was the centre of it. The area most likely to survive an aerial assault.

John turned and she heard his boots clanging against the metal of a staircase. Then they stopped. Alice raised her gun as she heard a gasp from Rodney. "Oh my God."

Alice had to move down a few more steps before she saw the body. He was dressed in green digital camo.

"Where are the others?" Ronon asked as John bent down next to the body, his fingers fumbling for the metal chain of his dog tags.

As he moved Alice noticed the same bloody wound on the marine's neck they'd seen on the Taranan's.

"Sheppard. Over here." Ronon yelled.

Alice moved first, to see him standing over the rest of Lt. negley's team. Without looking at the wounds she bent down to retrieve their tags, slipping them into her top vest pocket.

John and Rodney joined them, both of their faces pulled into frowns as they stared down at the bodies.

"You hear that?" Ronon said, just as a soft chittering sound started.

"Oh, it sounds like bugs!" Rodney said, lifting his gun towards the sound.

"C'mon." John said, taking one last look at the bodies before continuing down the corridor towards the noise.

The life signs detector beeped quietly in the background. Rodney pulled it out to look down at it.

"Put that thing away. I thought you said it didn't work in this area anyway." John snapped.

"It is - I just, I thought I could recalibrate it to take into effect ..."

Before he could finish the creature appeared out of the darkness. "Rodney!" Alice lifted her gun as it grabbed him and slammed him against the wall. Both her and John opened fire, hitting the main body.

The creature let out shrieks of pain. Rodney shoved as hard as he could, throwing the creature into the middle of the tunnel. Several bright red blasts hit its stomach. A horrid smell erupted from its stomach as organs started slipping out onto the floor.

Slowly the creature dropped down to the floor. Ronon fire another shot directly at its head.

Cautiously, John stepped closer his gun ready to fire. "It's dead."

Rodney sighed in relief, trying to catch his breath.

"John!" Teyla's desperate voice echoed towards them.

Ronon took off without hesitation. "Ronon." John hissed. Trying to move forward but also aware that Rodney was struggling to move.

"Go, we'll be right behind you." Alice assured him. Grabbing Rodney's arm to help him move. John gave them a final look then ran after Ronon.

Alice's entire body as she heard Teyla scream again. "I'm fine." Rodney said, his feet moving quicker, but his breaths were still coming in ragged gasps.

She wasn't going to argue, they both wanted to be there, to save Teyla.

They could hear Teyla's voice before they saw them. John was pulling at the restraints on her arms. Alice rushed forward and started pulling on the ones holding her legs.

"Michael. _Our_ Michael." John asked her.

"Yes. He created the creatures and he is attempting to build an army of them." As soon as the straps came free she bolted upright. Her fingers scratching over where she'd been confined.

"Where is he?" Ronon asked, anger spilling into his tone.

"I don't know. He ran off as soon as he heard the gunfire."

"Alright. We need to come up with the best plan here." John said, trying to keep his voice level. But she could see the frown in his forehead.

"The best plan is to kill him." Ronon growled as he headed for the door.

"Hey, just hang on a second." John moved to block his path.

Alice helped Teyla jump down from the table.

"Maybe I should check out these work stations. Look, there might be some intel." Rodney said, already pulling out his datapad to plug it into the terminal.

"We don't have any time." Ronon growled.

"Such as how many of these creatures he created and if they have any weaknesses that we might be able to exploit." Rodney continued loudly.

John bit down on his bottom lip, he was about to make a decision she wasn't going to like. "Alright. Teyla, Riles, you two stay with Rodney. Ronon and I are going after Michael. We'll stay in touch on the radio."

"You can't. Shielded, remember? Look, the energy spike - it fouls the radio communications as well." Rodney's voice was commanding.

But it was nothing compared to John's. "Well, then, _un_ shield it." He nodded to Ronon. "Let's go." and without a second glance they raced out of the room.

Alice suddenly felt exposed, she gripped her gun harder. "I'll focus on the shield, you dig through the research data. Teyla-"

Teyla raised her gun towards the door. "I have got you covered."

The radio silence made her uncomfortable, so far she'd not been able to find the command code to overrule it.

"It is _amazing_ how much work he's been able to get done in such a short amount of time. He's quite the industrious little fella ... or Wraith ... or ... whatever. What does he looks like now? I mean, is he, is he full-on Wraith again?" Rodney sounded too impressed for Alice's liking.

"Not quite. There are still human characteristics present in him. No doubt it's why I was confused when I first felt his presence."

"You'd think that the human side of him would temper his aggression a bit."

"Yes - because we humans aren't aggressive at all." Teyla remarked.

"Well, certainly less aggressive than, uh ..." He paused. "Oh, sarcasm. Yeah. Nice."

"Whilst I love talking about the qualities of the thing that's trying to kill us, I'd really rather be focusing on getting out of these god-forsaken tunnels." Alice snapped.

"Wait a minute."

She looked up as Rodney held up a finger in her direction. She briefly considered reaching out and breaking it.

"What is it?" She said through gritted teeth.

"I think I've just figured out how to disable the E.M. interference that is causing the shielding."

Alice tapped her radio. "John. Come in."

"Hey, I'm here." There was no echo in his voice, so she assumed they'd made it out of the tunnel.

"I got the shielding disabled." Rodney said into his mic.

"So I see." John responded placatingly.

Alice shook her head. "Any luck finding Michael?"

"No sign of him yet. Is that life signs detector working yet?"

She cast a glance at Rodney, his face went blank. "Ooh, of course." He patted down his pockets searching for the device. He pulled it out and waited for the screen to light up.

His face paled. "Oh, my God."

"What?" Alice and John asked at the same time, both with the same foreboding tone.

"I am reading a _ton_ of life signs near you."

Alice moved to look at the device herself.

"Well, define "ton" ... and define "near.""

"A few dozen. Closely knit together. They look confined." Alice reported succinctly.

"Prisoners in a holding cell, maybe?" John said hopefully.

"Or worse." Teyla said.

The dots on the screen started moving towards John's small dot. "Whatever they are, someone just let them out and they're headed your way."

"Oh, crap!"

There were a few tense moments as Rodney directed him out of the path of the creatures. Despite their ability to sneak about the air shafts, they didn't seem as adept at moving across the surface.

They'd managed to lead John through another entrance into the tunnels, towards a lone dot they assumed was Ronon.

"Keep going, straight up the tunnel. Ronon should be coming around the corner towards you ... now." Rodney instructed over the radio. The three of them still in the room they'd found Teyla. Alice had given up reading the data and had started downloading as much of it as she could on the drives they'd brought with them.

"It's not Ronon." John's voice was tense, but it wasn't shocked or panicked.

"It's one of the bugs?" Rodney asked nervously, exchanging an apologetic look with Alice.

"Michael."

Alice felt her hand clench into a fist. She flicked the last few files she could onto the maxed out drive. "That's it, that's all I can take."

"We may have a problem…"

Alice grabbed her pack throwing it over her shoulder. Then looked at the display on the scanner. A large group of dots was heading straight for John.

"John, the creatures are closing in on you fast. You'd better get moving." She said, putting urgency into her voice.

"Go to the Gate. We'll meet you there." John ordered, his voice was eerily calm. Just like it had been before he'd killed Kolya. She was seeing the otherside of John again, the one that was capable of killing in cold blood in order to protect his people.

"Alright." She said, then looked at Teyla and Rodney. "Let's move."

They ran back through the tunnels, passing the door they'd blasted through, the room full of the Taranan's bodies and the still simmering pod room. She tried not to think about the bodies. But it didn't work. Even as she ran past she could swear she was able to smell the room.

They didn't stop to look in any of them. Alice had the lead, Rodney was a few paces behind her and Teyla a few behind him.

They reached the rope they'd used to lower themselves down. Alice stopped and turned to Rodney. "You're first. Give me the scanner." She held out her hand.

Rodney stared at the rope in fear. "Rope climbing's the reason I got bronze instead of silver in the ParticiAction programme."

"What?!" Teyla hissed.

A low growl sounded not far away. If they didn't hurry they'd be overrun and they'd never make it out.

"Hurry! They're coming!" Teyla urged Rodney.

He grimaced, handing the scanner over to Alice and gripping the rope in his hands. Once he'd started to ascend Alice and Teyla aimed their guns down the way they'd come.

A single dot approached theirs. Alice opened fire, sending a hail of bullets down towards the creature. Casting a glance over her shoulder she could see Rodney had made it most of the way up, he was only an arms length away now. She tapped Teyla on the shoulder. "Go!"

Teyla didn't argue, she ran for the rope and ascended it quickly. Alice continued to fire short blasts of her gun, hoping it would deter the creature from coming closer. At least for a couple of minutes. "Alice!" Teyla yelled down from above.

Shoving the scanned in her vest, she dropped her gun, allowing the clip to hold its weight as it bashed against her chest. She grabbed the rope and climbed, not daring to look down. She didn't stop moving until her legs were completely clear of the hole. "Go. Go. Go" She stood up, grabbing a grenade off her vest and throwing it into the tunnel. That should slow them down.

She handed the scanner back to Rodney, as she passed him taking the lead as they ran back to the gate.

Her lungs struggled for breath and her calf muscles burned in protest as she pushed herself forward. Rodney kept up easily, even in the low light she could tell he was running on fear. It didn't matter though, she'd use what ever kept him moving. "Hurry up! We need to keep moving." She shouted back at him.

"Wait!" Rodney called out.

Alice slowed to a brisk walk but they didn't stop.

"What is it?" Teyla asked, breathing just as hard as Alice.

"Life signs up ahead." Something in his tone told her he didn't think it was John or Ronon.

"Colonel Sheppard? Ronon?" Teyla asked hopefully.

Before he could answer a loud roar came from up ahead up ahead. "Doesn't sound like it." They stopped moving now. Together they raised their rifles and aimed into the darkness.

The scanner started to beep loudly in Rodney's hand. "Life signs behind us, too. It's closing in fast. Oh boy!"

Alice shifted so the three of them were now back to back, trying to cover every side.

"We're surrounded." His voice shook with fear.

The growling grew closer. Teyla cried out and a weight slumped against Alice's back. She turned to see Teyla on the ground.

A blue blast of energy emanated from the trees striking Rodney, who then dropped to the ground beside Teyla. Twisting her body around she fired into the trees. Another two shots fired out towards her. They missed and she continued firing. But she wouldn't be able to keep this up.

A loud high pitched screech came towards them, Alice recognised it instantly. It was a Wraith Dart. Her eyes darted to the ground, she couldn't move Teyla or Rodney in the state they were in. She fired again into the trees. _This better be you John._ The beam dropped and swept over her.

Stepping back into the Control Room gave her a warm sense of relief.

"Are you alright? Where are the marines?" Elizabeth was running down the stairs to meet them.

"Didn't make it." John said.

"What?!" Elizabeth stopped a few steps from them.

"We barely made it ourselves. We had to commandeer a Wraith Dart just to dial out." Rodney gently touched his cheek, where one of the creatures had scratched him.

John shrugged. "We ditched it on another planet. Didn't wanna risk damaging the Control Room. _Daedalus_ can pick it up later." The humour was an attempt to mask the loss they were all feeling.

"What happened to the Taranans?"

Alice throat tightened, the smell of the room assaulted her memory. "They're dead - all of them." It felt like she choking again. Unclipping her gun she walked away.

After stowing her equipment, she went straight to the lab and connected the hard drives they'd downloaded the intel onto.

The translator slowly starting working on the hundreds of megabytes of data stored on the device. She was using a non-network computer, just incase Michael had hidden some Trojan horse virus within his data. It wouldn't have been the first time. But because it was an isolated system it was infinitely slower than if she connected it to the Ancient systems.

Rodney came in when the download was around 20%. He didn't say much, except pull up a chair and started helping her analyse the data that had already been translated.

Hours must have passed by them as they worked. What little light that had been filtering in through the windows had faded when Elizabeth walked into the lab. "I hate to ask…" she left the sentence hanging.

There was only one question any of them wanted answered. _How many more_.

Rodney cleared his throat. "Hundreds." But It still came out terrified.

Alice shifted so Elizabeth could see her screen. "From what we can tell, there are at least three other sites like the one we found." She knew what Elizabeth was going to ask next. "No, there are no gate addresses listed."

Elizabeth pursed her lips, taking in the information. "You both need to get some rest. That's an order."

A chill ran up Alice's spine, she was afraid. Afraid if she closed her eyes, she'd be back in that room, surrounded by eyes that no longer saw.

But Elizabeth wasn't going to leave until they did. So she pushed back and let her feet carry her out of the door.

She knew she shouldn't be here. It was wrong.

But there she was standing in front of the familiar door, holding her breath as it slid open.

John stood in the open doorway, wearing a pair of dark blue sweatpants and a plain black top. He didn't look surprised to see her, instead he almost look like he'd expected her. "Did they get him?" She asked. Instead of answering, he stretched out his hand, in it was an unopened can of beer. He'd definitely been expecting her. And she knew what that meant, _Michael had escaped, he was still out there._

"Come on in." He moved slightly to the side.

The breath she'd been holding slowly released as she took the cold can in her hand and stepped into the room.

Her body carried her over to the sofa at the far end of the room, curling her feet underneath her and twisting her head to look out the window.

The towers around the city had a soft glow that reflected in the pitch black ocean, creating a beautiful surreal image. A warm heavy weight dropped on her lap. She looked down to see the blanket from John's bed spread across her. He placed his can down on the floor beside them then slipped under the blanket to sit beside her. She shifted her body so she could fit comfortably against his. His arm stretched put behind her so he could look out the window as well.

They spent the next few minutes like that, in an easy companionable silence. Both looking out at the floating lights on the water. She didn't want to speak, the moment felt so fragile and pure, she didn't want to ruin it. But she had to. "I can't stop seeing their faces…" It was a confession, something she could only trust him with.

John's arm tightened around her. "I know."

Her chest constricted and the first sob choked out of her throat. She'd made it through the entire complex without shedding a tear or breaking down over the twisted corpses of the people she'd grown to care for. The people she'd promised to protect. But now sat wrapped in John's protective grasp, she couldn't be brave or strong anymore.

She cried and sobbed until her throat and eyes were dry, and even then her body shook and trembled. Neither her nor John said another word. He just held her close and waited for the pain and suffering to pass.

She'd never felt more cared for by anyone then that night. Even after everything they'd been through, there was no one else she would have been able to turn to, no one she was willing to see her this vulnerable.

At some point she'd fallen asleep. Cradled in John's arms where she felt safe.

She woke up wrapped in the blanket in the bed. She reached out expecting to feel John beside her, but she only felt cold sheets and the edge of the mattress. Sitting up she rubbed her eyes, wiping away the dried salty residue of her tears. There was a piece of paper folded on the bedside table.

 _Morning briefings. Don't worry about yours, thought you might need the time to yourself._

 _When you're ready, come find me._


End file.
